GIFT  OF 
»   L.    Leupp 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


..,:,,,„,....,.,.,,      ,,.          . 


THE 


Marvels  of  Modern  Mechanism 


AND 

THEIR  RELATION  TO 

SOCIAL  BETTERMENT 


BY 

JEROME   BRUCE   CRABTREE 

i) 

Author  of  "The  Passing  of  Spain" 


With  Special  Chapters  by 

CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT,  LL.  D. 

AND 

WILLARD  SMITH,  M.  D. 


"  What  yesterday  I  should  have  declared  impossible,  I  have  to-day  seen  realized." 

—LORD  KELVIN 


SAN  JOSE 


THE  KING-RICHARDSON  COMPANY 

SPRINGFIELD,  MASS. 

CHICAGO  INDIANAPOLIS 

1901 


TORONTO 


Copyright,  1901 
By  JEROME  BRUCE  CRABTREE 


i  / 


TABLE  OF   CONTENTS 


MODERN  MACHINERY 
ITS  BENEFITS  TO  MANKIND 


POWER 
ITS  PRODUCTION  AND  USE 


TRANSPORTATION 
ITS  RELATION  TO  PROGRESS 


ELECTRICITY 
ITS  PRACTICAL  APPLICATIONS 


IRON  AND  STEEL  WORKING 
THE  FOUNDATION  OF  OUR  INDUSTRIAL  LIFE 


MILITARY  ART  AND  SCIENCE 
THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  MATERIALS  OF  WARFARE 


MINERAL  INDUSTRIES 
GOLD — SILVER — COPPER — COAL — PETROLEUM 


MEANS  OF  COMMUNICATION 
TELEPHONE — TELEGRAPH— POSTAL  SERVICE 


PHOTOGRAPHY  AND  PRINTING 
EVOLUTION  OF  PHOTOGRAPHY — INFLUENCE  OF  THE  ART  OF  PRINTING 


ADVANCE  IN  AGRICULTURAL  MACHINERY 
INCREASES  THE  FOOD  SUPPLY  OF  THE  WORLD 


MISCELLANEOUS 

OPTICS — MODERN  SURGERY — HOUSEKEEPER'S  DEBT  TO  INVENTION — How  TO 

MAKE  AND  PATENT  AN  INVENTION — UTILIZATION  OF  WASTE 

PRODUCTS— MACHINERY,  LABOR  AND  WEALTH 


APPENDIX 
MAN'S  WORK  AND  TRAINING — MODERN  OCCUPATIONS  FOR  WOMEN 


FULL  PAGE   ILLUSTRATIONS 


COTTON  PICKERS Frontispiece 

VERTICAL  BLOWING  ENGINE        ....       ...'..     ....  .  51 

EARLY  TRANSPORTATION      .        .        .        ....        .        *  .  .  127 

Rio  LAS  ANIMAS  CANON      ....       ;.        ....  .  .  137 

DUTTON  PNEUMATIC  CANAL  LOCK      .        .        ..*.-..        .        .  .  .  239 

CASTING  PIG  IRON        .        .        .        .        .        ...;..  .  .  327 

STEEL  INGOT  FOR  ARMOR   .        .        .        .        ..              ,        .      v  .  .  339 

STEEL  SKELETON  OF  HIGH  BUILDING    •    i".      V        .        .        .        .  .  .  370 

ARMOR  vs.  GUN  .         .     •.'...       .        .        .     "  .        .        >       ..  .  .  391 

SMITH  AND  WESSON  AND  OLD  FLINTLOCK  REVOLVERS  ....  .  .  411 

"CONSTITUTION"  AND  "OREGON"    .        „-      .        .        .        .        .  .  .  435 

TORPEDO  BOAT  DESTROYER         .        .        .        .      ^  .        .        .      -  .  .  .  459 

HOE'S  LATEST  PRESS    .        .        .        .        .       ...        .        «        .  ^  .  594 

"THE  MAN  WITH  THE  HOE"      ._      .        i       V        .        .        .        .  .  .  616 

GRAIN  ELEVATOR          .        .    .    .  y     .        .       .       <       ,       .        .  .  .  632 

STOCKYARDS        ».      .        .-     .        .        .        .        .        .        »       .  .  .  676 

ARMOUR  INSTITUTE       .        *        .        .        .        .        .        .        i        .  .  .  701 

MINING  ROOM  OF  McGiLL  UNIVERSITY     .        .        .        ...  .  .  708 


PREFATORY. 

r  I  ^HIS  work  is  an  attempt  to  describe  in  language  free  from  tech- 
*  nicalities  a  few  of  the  most  striking  inventions  and  to  show 
what  part  they  have  played  in  our  industrial  life.  It  is  not  a  tech- 
nical treatise  but  is  rather  a  tribute  to  the  men  who  have  "  thought 
in  iron  and  steel"  and  an  attempt  to  show  how  their  work  has 
benefited  society. 

The  demands  of  modern  life  are  so  exacting  that  the  average 
man  is  prone  to  forget  how  much  he  owes  to  those  who  have  helped 
to  bring  civilization  out  of  savagery.  This  book  is  issued  in  the  be- 
lief that  he  is  unthoughtful  rather  than  ungrateful  and  that  he  will 
be  glad  to  have  their  struggles  and  victories  recalled  to  him. 

It  has  been  the  writer's  good  fortune  to  add  to  the  value  of  the 
book  by  the  special  articles  contributed  by  Hon.  Carroll  D.  Wright 
and  Willard  Smith,  M.D.  Recognition  is  made  of  the  painstaking 
work  of  Heber  A.  Hopkins,  B.S.,  in  reading  the  technical  parts  of 
the  manuscript. 

Thanks  are  due  to  Colonel  J.  P.  Farley  and  other  courteous  offi- 
cers of  the  Ordnance  Department  for  information  furnished  ;  to  the 
Bethlehem  Steel  Co.,  R.  Hoe  and  Co.,  the  Westinghouse  Air  Brake 
Co.,  the  Commercial  Cable  Co.,  the  Baldwin  Locomotive  Works, 
and  many  other  progressive  manufacturers  for  literature  descriptive 
and  cuts  illustrative  of  their  work. 

JEROME  BRUCE  CRABTREE. 

SPRINGFIELD,  MASS.,  April,  1901. 


LIST  OF  AUTHORITIES. 

THAT  this  work  might  be  as  nearly  accurate  as  possible,  constant  ref- 
erence has  been  made  to  the  highest  available  authorities.  That  it  might 
speak  of  the  latest  achievements,  a  large  number  of  technical  periodicals 
have  been  consulted.  The  following  list  will  have  some  interest  for  the 
general  reader  and  will  be  of  considerable  value  to  the  student  who  desires 
to  pursue  the  subject  more  fully. 

BOOKS   CONSULTED. 

Alaska.     Published  by  the  Bureau  of  American  Republics.      1897.     Washington. 

American  Telegraphy.     Maver.     New  York.      1897. 

A  Manual  of  the  Steam  Engine.     R.  H.  Thurston  (Cornell).     New  York.     1894. 

Articles  by  Maxim,  Chanute,  and  Holland. 

Boilers  and  Furnaces.     Barr.     Philadelphia.     1898. 

British  Locomotives.     C.  J.  Bowen  Cooke.     London. 

Business  Openings  for  Girls.     White.     Boston.     1891. 

Chambers's  Encyclopaedia.     Philadelphia. 

College  Training  for  Women.     Claghorn.     New  York.      1897. 

Compendium  of  Transportation  Theories.     McCain.     Washington. 

Electricity  One  Hundred  Years  Ago  and  To-day.     Houston.     New  York. 

Encyclopaedia  Britannica.     New  York. 

Entomology.     Packard.     New  York.     1898. 

Fatigue  of  Metal  in  Wrought  Iron  and  Steel  Forgings.     Porter.     Philadelphia. 

Guide  to  the  Yukon  Gold  Fields.     Wilson.     Seattle.     1897. 

Helps  for  Ambitious  Boys.     Drysdale.     New  York.      1899. 

High  Office  Buildings.     Birkmire.     New  York. 

History  of  Paper.     J.  E.  A.  Smith.     New  York. 

History  of  the  Baldwin  Locomotive  Works.     Philadelphia. 

History  of  Pennsylvania.     Eagle.     Philadelphia. 

History  of  Steam  Navigation.     Rear  Admiral  Preble,  U.  S.  N.     Philadelphia. 

History  Studies  of  Johns  Hopkins  University.     Baltimore. 

Industrial  History  of  the  United  States  and  Canada.     Bolles.     Norwich,  Ct.     1879. 

Influence  of  Sea  Power  upon  History.     Capt.  A.  T.  Mahan.     Boston.      1892. 

Influence  of  Sea  Power  upon  the  French  Revolution  and  Empire.     Boston.      1892. 

Information  from  Abroad.     Publication  of  Naval  Intelligence  Office.     Washington. 

Iron  in  All  Ages.     Swank.     Philadelphia. 

Journalism  for  Women.     E.  A  Bennett.     London.     1898. 


LIST   OF   AUTHORITIES.  13 

Lecture  of  Charles  E.  Trip'  .r. 

Life  of  Cyrus  W.  Field.     Harper's.     1896.     New  York. 

Literature  furnished  by  numerous  manufacturers. 

Manitoba.     Macoun.     New  York.     1883. 

Michigan  Board  of  Health  Report.     Detroit.      1895. 

Modern  Mechanism.     Appleton.     New  York. 

Modern  Methods  of  Sewage  Disposal.     George  E.  Waring.     New  York.     1894. 

Naval  Annual.     '92,  '93,  '94,  '95,  '96,  '97,  '98.     Lord  T.  A.  Brassey.     London. 

Newfoundland  to  Manitoba.     W.  Fraser  Rae.     New  York.     1881. 

Nickel  Steel  for  Crank,  Pins,  and  Axles.     Porter.     Philadelphia. 

Official   Handbook  of  Information   Relating  to  the  Dominion  of  Canada.     Government 

Publication.     1893.     Ottawa. 
Ordnance  and  Gunnery.     Bruff.     New  York. 
Original  Article.     Frederick  E.  Ives,  Inventor  of  Kromscop. 
Physical  Development  and  Exercise  for  Women.     Bissell.     New  York.      1891. 
Physics.     Barker.     New  York. 
Photography.     Abney.     New  York. 
Pleasant  ways  in  Science.     Proctor.     London. 
Poor's  Manual  of  the  Railroads  of  the  United  States.     New  York. 
Practical  Paper  Making.     Clapperton.     New  York. 
Problems  of  Greater  Britain.     Dilke.     London.     1890. 
Proceedings  of  the  United  States  Naval  Institute.     Annapolis. 
Ready  for  Business,  or  Choosing  an  Occupation.     Manson.     New  York.      1889. 
Reports  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey.     Washington. 
Report  of  Committee  of  Transportation  of  the  American  Economic  Association.     New 

York. 

Report  of  John  W.  McCain,  President  of  Commercial  Cable  Co.     New  York.     1895. 
Reports  of  the  United  States  National  Museum.     Washington. 
Recent  Economic  Changes.     David  A.  Wells.     New  York.      1891. 
Senate  Report.      1142.     52d  Congress.     Washington. 
Separate  System  of  Sewage.     Cady  Staley.     New  York. 
Sewage  Disposal  in  the  United  States.     Rafter  &  Barker.     New  York. 
Sewage  Disposal.     Kiersted.     New  York.      1893. 
State  Department  Documents.     Washington. 
Steam  Engine.     London.     Burns. 
Steel  Construction.     Purdy.     Madison,  Wis. 

Steel  for  Marine  Engines  and  Shafting.     Davenport.     Philadelphia. 
The  Century  of  Electricity.     Mendenhall.     Boston. 
The  Electric  Automobile.     Woods.     Chicago. 
The  Health  of  Nations.     Edward  Chadwick.     London.      1897. 
The  Gatlings  at  Santiago.     Parker.     New  York.      1899. 

The  Life  and  Work  of  Cyrus  W.  Field.     Isabella  Field  Judson.     New  York. 
The  Laying  of  the  Atlantic  Cable.     Henry  O'Neil.     Edinburgh. 
The  Atlantic  Telegraph.     W.  H.  Russell.     London. 
The  Telephone.     Du  Moncel.     New  York. 
The  Story  of  a  Piece  of  Coal.     Martin.     New  York. 


14  LIST    OF   AUTHORITIES. 

The  Student's  Cotton  Spinning.     James  Nasmith.     Manchester. 

The  Textile  Industries  of  the  United  States.     Bagnall.     Cambridge. 

The  Quarter  Century  in  Photography.     Wilson.     New  York. 

The  Queen's  Highway.     Cumberland.     London.     1887. 

The  Story  of  Photography.     Story.     New  York. 

The  World's  Railways.     J.  G.  Pangborn.     New  York. 

The  Development  of  Transportation  System  in  the  United  States.     J.  L.  Ringwalt.     Phil- 
adelphia. 

The  Report  of  the  United  States  Government  Deep  Waterways  Commission.     Washington. 

The  Training  of  Girls  for  Work.     Edith  A.  Barnett.     New  York.      1894. 

The  Woman's  Book.     2  Vols.     New  York.      1894. 

The  World's  Congress  of  Representative  Women.     Edited  by  May  W.  Sewall.     Chicago. 
1894. 

Through  the  Gold  Fields  of  Alaska  to  Behring  Straits.     De  Windt.     New  York.      1898. 

Thrown  on  Her  Own  Resources,  or  What  Girls  Can  Do.     Mrs.  J.  C.  Croly.     New  York 
1891. 

Triumphs  of  Modern  Engineering.     London. 

Treatise  on  Electricity  and  Magnetism.     Gordon.     New  York. 

Treatise  on  Wooden  Trestle  Bridges.     Foster.     New  York. 

United  States  Patent  Office  Reports.     Washington. 

Wages,  Prices  and  Cost  of  Living.     Carroll  D.  Wright.     Boston. 

Water  Purification.     Rideal.     Philadelphia.     1897. 

Water  Supply.     Mason.     New  York.     1896. 

Wireless  Telegraphy.     Kerr.     New  York.      1898. 

Westinghouse  Air  Brake  Co.'s  Instruction  Book.     Pittsburgh. 

What  Shall  we  do  with  our  Daughters  ?      Mary  A.  Livermore.     Boston.      1893. 

What  Shall  our  Boys  do  for  a  Living  ?     Wingate.     New  York.     1899. 

What  Women  can  earn.     New  York.      1899. 

Wonders  of  Modern  Mechanism.     Cochrane.     Philadelphia. 

Women  and  Economics.     Charlotte  Perkins  Stetson.     Boston.     1899. 

Work  for  Women.     Manson.     New  York. 

Women  in  the  Pulpit.     Frances  E.  Willard.     Boston.     1888. 

Women  in  the  Business  World.     By  One  of  Them.     Boston.     1894. 


TECHNICAL  PERIODICALS   CONSULTED. 

American  Architect.     Boston. 

American  Manufacturer  and  Iron  World.     Pittsburg. 

American  Journal  of  Science.     New  Haven. 

Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science.     Philadelphia.      1893. 

Army  and  Navy  Journal.     New  York. 

Automobile  Magazine.     New  York. 

Bulletin  American  Iron  and  Steel  Association.     Philadelphia, 

Canadian  Engineer.     Montreal. 


LIST   OF  AUTHORITIES.  I  5 

Gassier.     New  York. 

Consular  Reports.     Washington. 

Electrical  World  and  Engineer.     New  York. 

Engineer.     London. 

Engineering.     London. 

Engineering  Magazine.     London. 

Engineering  and  Mining  Journal.     New  York. 

Iron  Age.     New  York. 

Iron  and  Coal  Trades  Review.     London. 

Journal  of  United  States  Artillery.     Radford.     New  York. 

Journal  of  United  States  Artillery.     Fort  Monroe. 

Machinery.     New  York. 

Marine  Engineering.     New  York. 

Science.     New  York. 

Scientific  American.     New  York. 

United  Service  Magazine.     London.  . 


OTHER    PERIODICALS  CONSULTED. 

Arena.     New  York. 

Belford's  Magazine.     London. 

Canadian  Magazine.     Toronto. 

Century  Magazine.     New  York. 

Chambers's  Journal.     London. 

Chautauquan.     Meadville. 

Cosmopolitan.     New  York. 

Daily  Advertiser.     Boston. 

Daily  Graphic.     London. 

Education.     Boston. 

Edinburgh  Review.     Edinburgh. 

Fortnightly  Review.     London. 

Forum.     New  York. 

Good  Words.     London. 

Harper's  Magazine.     New  York. 

Lippincott's  Magazine.     Philadelphia. 

Living  Age.     Boston. 

Marine  Engineering.     New  York. 

McClure's  Magazine.     New  York. 

Munsey.     New  York. 

Nation.     New  York. 

National  Review.     London. 

Nature.     New  York. 

New  England  Magazine.     Boston. 

New  Review.     London. 


I  6  LIST    OF   AUTHORITIES, 

Nineteenth  Century.       New  York. 
North  American  Review.     New  York. 
Popular  Science  Monthly.     New  York,, 
Public  Opinion.     New  York. 
Quarterly  Review.     London. 
Review  of  Reviews.     London. 
Scribner's  Magazine.     New  York. 
Spectator.     London. 
Strand.     London. 
The  Empire.     Toronto. 
Tribune.     New  York. 
Westminster  Review.     London. 


INTRODUCTION. 

A  LIFETIME  would  be  too  short  for  the  ablest  writer  to  do  full 
justice  to  the  debt  civilization  owes  to  the  inventive  genius 
which  has  evolved  the  marvelous  machinery  of  our  time  from  the 
rude  stone  implements  of  an  age  of  savagery.  Familiarity  with 
these  achievements  seems  to  have  lessened  general  appreciation  of 
the  great  progress  that  has  been  made,  even  within  the  century  just 
closed. 

The  world  thrills  at  the  recital  of  the  deeds  of  a  Livingstone, 
a  Stanley,  or  a  Nansen,  those  intrepid  explorers  of  the  unknown 
regions  of  "Darkest  Africa"  and  the  frozen  North.  Surely  those 
other  explorers  who  invaded  an  equally  unknown  realm  of  natural 
law  and  physical  forces,  who  have  enabled  us  to  substitute  comfort- 
able clothing  for  the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  who  have  given  us  warm, 
lighted,  and  happy  homes  in  exchange  for  the  cave  of  the  savage, 
cold,  dark,  and  reeking  with  moisture,  who  have  made  it  possible  to 
heap  our  breakfast  tables  with  the  choicest  food  products  of  a  dozen 
countries,  who  have  given  us  quick  and  easy  communications  with 
our  loved  ones  at  a  distance,  whose  discoveries  have  eradicated  some 
diseases  and  rendered  all  others  less  terrible ;  who,  in  short,  have 
made  our  lives  full,  rich,  and  worth  living,  are  entitled  to  some  evi- 
dence of  our  appreciation. 

Society  accepts  these  benefits  as  unconcernedly  as  though  they 
had  always  existed,  but  they  have  been  bought  at  the  expense  not 
only  of  toil,  but  often  of  privation,  suffering,  and  ruin.  Frequently 
have  the  lives  of  inventors  been  threatened  and  their  property 
destroyed  by  the  people  who  had  most  to  gain  by  their  inventions. 
Often  they  have  been  dead  and  forgotten  before  the  world  was  suffi- 


1 8  INTRODUCTION. 

ciently  advanced  to  make  use  of  their  discoveries.  Who  were  these 
inventors  and  how  has  all  this  progress  been  gained? 

Lying  off  the  northeastern  coast  of  Australia  is  a  coral  reef  more 
than  1200  miles  in  length,  the  work  of  countless  myriads  of  mi- 
croscopic animals.  Only  the  upper  part  of  the  reef  is  alive,  and  it 
has  for  a  foundation,  the  work  of  previous  colonies  that  have  lived, 
died,  and  bequeathed  their  hard,  stony  skeletons  as  a  legacy  to  suc- 
ceeding builders.  The  identity  of  the  earlier  workers  is  hopelessly 
lost,  but  the  fragments  of  their  skeletons  are  a  necessary  part  of  the 
reef's  foundation  and  from  them  many  a  parallel  illustrating  the 
growth  of  society  can  be  drawn.  For,  like  the  building  of  the  coral 
reef,  each  invention  is  based  upon  the  data  collected  by  society  from 
all  the  ages,  and  the  inventor  consciously  or  unconsciously  avails 
himself  of  the  experiences  of  those  who  have  lost  their  identity  as 
completely  as  the  countless  numbers  forming  the  foundation  of  the 
coral  reef.  It  is  an  accepted  belief  having  in  psychology  almost  the 
force  of  a  law,  that  any  mental  picture,  no  matter  how  strange,  must 
be  built  upon  data  at  some  other  time  collected  by  the  individual. 
If  it  is  psychologically  true  that  one  cannot  even  dream  of  something 
of  which  he  has  never  heard,  it  is  equally  true  that  all  great  inven- 
tions are  based  upon  the  acquired  sum  of  human  knowledge. 

The  man  who  first  subjugated  fire  and  enslaved  it  for  the  service 
of  mankind  was  as  great  a  benefactor  of  his  race  as  any  subsequent 
discoverer  or  inventor. 

The  primitive  man  was  at  war  with  all  the  rude  forces  of  nature, 
the  beasts  of  the  forests,  and  his  hardly  less  savage  fellows.  Each 
improvement  in  his  weapons  placed  a  premium  on  intelligence,  ren- 
dered brute  force  less  decisive,  and  raised  him  higher  in  the  scale. 
The  man  who  hit  upon  metal  as  a  substitute  for  stone  added  im- 
mensely to  the  sum  of  human  knowledge.  The  discovery  made  him 
a  better  builder,  a  more  successful  hunter,  a  much  m.ore  dreaded 


INTRODUCTION.  JQ 


antagonist.  In  tribal  conflicts  where  the  metal  weapon  of  the  one 
clashed  against  the  stone  weapon  of  the  other,  victory  must  have 
fallen  to  the  more  intelligent. 

All  the  wants  of  the  primitive  man  were  supplied  by  his  own 
efforts;  he  built  his  own  house,  hunted  wild  beasts,  used  their  flesh 
for  food  and  their  skin  for  garments.  The  development  of  tribal 
organization  brought  out  various  abilities;  one  man  became  a  fisher, 
another  a  hunter,  a  third  a  maker  of  weapons.  Each  took  upon 
himself  the  part  he  could  best  perform  and  this  division  of  labor 
marked  one  of  the  most  important  epochs  in  the  history  of  man,  for 
it  was  the  parent  germ  of  "  the  factory  system"  with  all  that  sig- 
nifies. Specialized  labor  became  more  skillful,  made  better  pottery, 
turned  out  better  tools,  better  weapons,  and  built  better  dwellings. 

One  of  the  most  marvelous  features  of  modern  civilization  is  the 
snail-like  pace  with  which  it  began  and  the  astonishing  rapidity  with 
which  it  is  now  progressing.  Professor  Flinders  Petrie  ascribes  an  age 
of  at  least  100,000  years  to  the  first  rude  flints  found  in  the  Kentish 
hills  of  England  and  an  age  of  10,000  years  to  the  polished  flint 
weapons  made  when  man  was  beginning  to  engage  himself  with  pas- 
toral and  agricultural  pursuits.  If  the  estimate  is  correct  it  took 
90,000  years  for  him  to  pass  from  a  dweller  in  caves  and  a  user  of 
the  roughest  stone  weapons  to  a  builder  of  rude  dwellings  and  a 
maker  of  polished  stone  weapons.  In  the  latter  age  he  made  pottery 
and  spun  and  wove  a  rude  kind  of  cloth.  For  his  defense  he  con- 
structed earthworks  so  large  as  to  suggest  a  tribal  organization. 

The  Cave  Dwellers  inhabited  large  caves  of  Western  Europe, 
especially  those  of  England,  Belgium,  and  France.  Accumulations 
from  their  kitchens  and  workshops  mixed  with  falling  material  from 
their  walls  have  in  the  course  of  time  built  up  layers  many  feet  in 
thickness  which,  like  the  pages  of  a  book,  contain  a  history  of  their 
progress.  The  cave  man  lived  in  the  days  of  the  saber-toothed  tiger 


20  INTRODUCTION. 

and  the  hairy  mammoth.  He  made  needles  and  awls  of  bone,  from 
which  we  conclude  he  made  clothing.  He  made  ornaments  from  the 
teeth  of  animals  and  was  something  of  an  artist,  for  he  often  traced 
on  bones  or  the  walls  of  his  cave  outlines  of  men  or  animals,  and  his 
pictures  of  the  hairy  mammoth  with  its  long  mane,  curved  tusks,  and 
hanging  trunk  show  considerable  skill. 

The  Lake  Dweller  was  a  later  and  higher  type  of  man.  He  asso- 
ciated with  his  fellows,  built  his  house  on  piles  over  a  lake,  and  had 
a  home  easily  defended  from  enemies  without  and  a  constant  supply 
of  food  and  drink  underneath.  Such  settlements  were  first  found 
in  the  Swiss  lakes  but  they  are  now  known  to  have  existed  in 
France,  Hungary,  Italy,  Holland,  and  the  British  Isles.  Many  such 
villages  have  been  explored,  some  of  which  were  built  on  no  less 
than  100,000  piles  set  upright  in  the  water  and  fastened  by  cross- 
beams pinned  together.  This  mode  of  life  lasted  for  thousands  of 
years  and  passed  from  the  use  of  stone  tools  to  those  of  bronze. 
The  lake  dweller  was  a  round  headed  man  ;  he  cultivated  flax,  grapes, 
and  grain  ;  made  pottery  and  ornamented  it ;  kept  several  domestic 
animals,  and  the  pictures  he  left  show  that  he  yoked  cattle  to  the 
plow. 

The  long  headed  man  of  the  bronze  age  improved  upon  the  work 
of  his  predecessors.  He  used  copper  and  perhaps  hardened  it,  but 
when  he  mixed  tin  with  copper  and  invented  bronze,  he  was  able  to 
produce  tools  and  weapons  that  materially  improved  his  own  condi- 
tion. It  is  believed  that  man  passed  from  stone  to  bronze  tools  in 
about  5000  years.  Bronze  was  freely  used  in  Egypt  3000  years  B.  C., 
and  iron  about  1500  B.  C.,  though  it  was  earlier  known  to  the  Baby- 
lonians; it  reached  Italy  about  700  B.  C.,  and  Britain  about  400 
B.  C.,  and  its  use  accelerated  the  progress  of  the  race. 

The  oldest  man  in  America  was  found  beneath  the  great  lava 
beds  of  California,  where  the  rivers  have  cut  through  from  2000  to 


INTRODUCTION.  2  I 

4000  feet  of  lava  rock,  an  operation  that  must  have  required  thou- 
sands of  years  for  its  performance.  However  it  was  the  valleys  of 
the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates  that  witnessed  the  dawn  of  history  and 
there  is  found  the  earliest  trace  of  civilized  man. 

The  earliest  Egyptians  were  of  a  race  resembling  the  inhabitants 
of  southern  Europe,  but  about  5000  to  6000  B.  C.  Egypt  was  in- 
vaded by  Asiatics  having  a  better  knowledge  of  metals  and  better 
weapons.  The  invaders  overthrew  the  government,  coalesced  with 
the  natives  and  formed  a  very  able  race.  The  new  Egypt  reared 
great  buildings  requiring  accurate  workmanship,  undertook  exten- 
sive public  works,  showing  they  understood  the  art  of  organizing 
labor.  They  anticipated  the  Suez  Canal  by  three  times  connecting 
the  Nile  with  the  Red  Sea  and  from  1500  B.  C.  to  1200  B.  C. 
Egyptian  ships  traded  all  along  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean.  They 
were  workers  of  metals ;  cultivated  and  spun  flax  and  perhaps  cotton ; 
made  paper  from  papyrus ;  had  an  extensive  literature  and  believed 
in  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 

When  Abraham  left  "  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  "  in  the  valley  of  the 
Euphrates,  2000  B.  C.,  he  left  an  old,  rich,  highly  civilized,  and 
thickly  populated  country,  one  that  had  not  only  a  language  but 
a  literature,  and  had  possessed  the  art  of  writing  for  thousands  of 
years.  Here  were  located  the  famous  cities  of  Babylon,  Nineveh, 
Accad,  Nippur,  and,  perhaps  others  as  great  that  are  now  for- 
gotten. Large  libraries  were  established  containing  dictionaries  in 
which  words  were  defined  in  three  languages  arranged  in  parallel 
columns.  They  erected  magnificent  temples,  cultivated  art,  and  had 
an  elaborate  system  of  laws. 

It  is  commonly  supposed  these  ancient  civilizations  had  no  effect 
upon  the  intellectual  life  of  Europe.  Excavations  in  Greece  prove 
that  country  was  engaged  in  commerce  with  Egypt  1000  years  B.  C. 
Psammetichus  I.  (666-612  B.  C.)  employed  Greek  mercenaries  to  assist 


22  INTRODUCTION. 

him  in  his  wars  and  "  occasioned  the  first  grand  impulse  in  the  intel- 
lectual life  of  Europe  by  opening  the  ports  of  Egypt  and  making 
that  country  accessible  to  the  blue-eyed  and  red-haired  barbarians  of 
the  North.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  exaggerate  the  influence  of  this 
event  upon  the  progress  of  Europe."  This  was  300  years  before 
Alexandria  was  founded.  Babylonian  influence  is  even  more  strongly 
marked ;  it  has  given  astronomy  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  the  months 
of  the  year,  seven  days  in  a  week,  the  division  of  circles  into  degrees, 
and  has  left  its  imprint  on  the  religion  of  the  Hebrews.  Professor 
Petrie  says  that  the  Greek  character  and  growth  of  fine  arts,  700 
B.  C.,  was  largely  influenced  by  the  Assyrian  and  Egyptian  work  at 
second  hand,  obtained  through  the  Greek  settlements. 

The  decay  of  these  ancient  civilizations  was  coincident  with  the 
intellectual  development  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  when  the  gloom 
of  the  dark  ages  that  had  swept  over  Europe  lifted,  the  scene  of  the 
greatest  industrial  activity  was  found  in  Belgium  and  the  Nether- 
lands. No  very  considerable  progress  had  been  made,  but  each  ad- 
vancement was  due  to  discovery  or  invention,  as  that  of  the  mariner's 
compass,  the  use  of  gunpowder  in  warfare,  or  the  art  of  printing 
from  movable  types.  With  the  discoveries  of  Newcomen  and  Watt 
the  scene  of  activity  shifted  to  England,  and  the  resulting  develop- 
ment will  be  treated  at  length  in  the  body  of  this  work. 

The  steam  engine  caused  an  industrial  and  intellectual  revolution, 
totally  changed  man's  mode  of  existence,  and  wrought  an  astonishing 
improvement  in  his  condition.  When  the  locomotive  succeeded  the 
wagon  and  the  plodding  caravan,  the  world  shrunk  at  a  bound  to  one 
twentieth  its  size,  and  man  was  able  to  do  in  a  day  more  than  he 
could  formerly  accomplish  in  a  year.  Every  improvement  that 
lightened  his  toil  and  made  the  struggle  for  food,  clothing,  and 
shelter  easier,  was  followed  by  increased  activity  in  his  intellectual 
life.  There  can  be  little  display  of  exalted  sentiments  where  man  is 


INTRODUCTION.  23 

struggling  desperately  to  preserve  a  precarious  existence,  but  as  in- 
vention improved  his  physical  and  intellectual  condition  his  moral 
growth  was  quickened.  He  founded  hospitals,  orphan  asylums,  and 
libraries ;  recognizing  in  ignorance  the  greatest  foe  to  progress  he 
established  free  schools.  The  increase  of  human  happiness  is  a  true 
test  of  human  progress.  The  insane,  once  believed  to  be  possessed 
of  the  devil  and  treated  with  shocking  barbarity,  now  receive  uniform 
kindness  and  skilled  attendance.  Sanitary  engineering  has  rendered 
impossible  loathsome  plagues  that  once  swept  over  Europe  and  wiped 
out  whole  villages  and  cities.  I  Even  war  has  been  divested  of  half  its 
horrors.  Cromwell  led  an  assault  on  Drogheda  and  says,  "We  put 
to  the  sword  the  whole  number  of  the  defendants."  Nearly  1000 
who  had  taken  refuge  in  a  great  church  were  killed,  yet  Cromwell 
was  not  more  merciless  than  the  times,  and  prisoners  taken  in  any 
battle  were  likely  to  be  sold  as  galley  slaves.  The  Spanish  soldiers 
of  the  Spanish-American  war  were  sent  home  at  the  expense  of  their 
captors.  Criminals  are  no  longer  confined  in  prisons  too  horrible  for 
description,  but  now  enjoy  more  physical  comforts  and  educational 
advantages  than  did  the  laborer  of  the  eighteenth  century.  At  Sing 
Sing  the  convicts  are  permitted  to  attend  school,  Bible  classes,  and 
prayer  meetings.  They  have  the  right  to  see  the  physician  at  any 
time  and  have  freely  at  their  service  medical  skill  that  could  not  be 
secured  by  the  most  powerful  monarch  of  Christendom  100  years 
ago.  The  progress  made  in  medicine  and  surgery  has  wonderfully 
relieved  human  misery  and  added  thousands  of  years  to  the  life  of 
each  generation.  It  is  an  open  secret  in  the  medical  profession  that 
the  life  of  Washington  might  have  been  prolonged  by  a  simple  opera- 
tion which  thousands  of  physicians  are  now  capable  of  performing, 
and  the  first  man  of  the  nation  died  for  the  lack  of  skill  which  is  now 
freely  available  for  the  meanest  pauper  in  any  great  city. 

"  Who  is  it  would  sigh  for  the  days  that  are  gone?  " 


MODERN   MACHINERY 

AND    ITS    BENEFITS    TO    MANKIND. 
BY  CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT,  LL.D. 

Textile  Machinery — The  Factory  System  —  The  Cotton  Gin  —  Illuminating  Gas  — 
Steam  and  Electricity  —  Street  Cars  —  Elevators  —  Clothing  —  Sewing  Machines  —  Type- 
writer—  Anaesthetics  —  Agricultural  Machinery  —  Printing  —  Influence  of  the  Printing  Press 
—  How  Machinery  Affects  Labor. 

Textile  Machinery.  Since  the  Christian  era  no  event  has  occur- 
red having  such  important  effects  upon  the  interests  of  mankind  at 
large  as  the  invention  of  printing  with  movable  types;  and  since 
that  invention  the  institution  of  the  factory  system,  resulting  from 
the  inventions  of  machinery  used  in  the  manufacture  of  textiles, 
must  be  considered  as  the  most  important.  These  inventions  belong 
to  modern  times ;  they  were  for  spinning  and  weaving  machinery, 
and  were  developed  to  great  extent  during  the  last  third  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Practically,  the  decade  of  years  from  1760  to 
1770  can  be  considered  as  the  birth  of  these  inventions.  The  appli- 
cation of  steam  as  motive  power  in  the  use  of  machinery  supple- 
mented the  utility  of  the  spinning  and  weaving  devices  by  allowing 
power  other  than  water  to  be  applied  to  their  working.  The  modern 
system  of  labor  can  well  be  called  the  factory  system,  because  it  is 
only  through  the  use  of  machinery  and  a  motive  power  that  can  be 


26  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

utilized  at  any  point  that  the  factory  system  finds  its  vital,  force. 
All  inventions,  therefore,  which  relate  to  the  production  of  goods  by 
machinery  through  the  application  of  power,  whether  water,  steam, 
or  electricity,  belong  to  that  system,  and  this,  as  already  stated,  is 
entirely  modern. 

Factory  System  versus  the  Sweating  System.  The  factory  sys- 
tem has  been  of  immense  power  as  a  civilizing  agent  in  the  world. 
Prior  to  its  existence  all  goods  were  produced  by  the  slow,  tedious 
hand  methods,  which  constituted  the  sweating  system  as  we  know  it 
to-day.  When  we  find  the  sweating  system  in  any  of  the  great  cities 
it  is  simply  the  lingering  remains  of  the  universal  system  which 
preceded  the  establishment  of  the  factory.  The  factory  itself  must 
be  understood  in  order  to  comprehend  its  great  influence  on  human 
welfare.  It  is  scientific  in  its  nature;  even  in  its  structure  its  parts 
must  be  harmonious,  the  calculations  requisite  for  their  harmony 
involving  the  highest  mathematical  skill.  Under  the  system  which 
it  typifies  the  combined  operation  of  many  orders  of  work  people  is 
secured  in  operating  with  assiduous  skill  a  series  of  productive  ma- 
chines continuously  impelled  by  a  central  power.  According  to  Dr. 
Andrew  Ure,  the  factory,  in  the  strictest  sense,  involves  the  idea  of 
a  vast  automaton,  composed  of  various  mechanical  and  intellectual 
organs,  acting  in  uninterrupted  concert  for  the  production  of  a  com- 
mon object,  all  of  them  being  subordinated  to  a  self-regulated  moving 
force.  Production  under  this  modern  system,  therefore,  is  made 
scientific,  as  well  as  the  structures  used  in  production.  This  scien- 
tific nature,  not  only  of  the  factory  but  of  the  product  of  the  factory, 
makes  all  work  in  it  more  or  less  intellectual,  and  this  in  itself  is  a 
civilizing  element ;  but  when  it  is  understood  that  through  the  in- 
ventions that  make  up  the  factory  system  —  and  they  are  almost 
innumerable  —  people  of  very  low  attainments,  accustomed  to  the 
crudest  kind  of  work,  are  enabled  to  step  up  out  of  their  low  sur- 


MODERN    MACHINERY.  2/ 

roundings  on  to  a  fairly  intellectual  plane  and  into  associations  which 
stimulate  the  mind,  we  see  the  benefits  to  mankind. 

So  many  illustrations  of  this  could  be  given  that  it  seems  only 
necessary  at  the  present  time  to  make  the  broad,  general  statement 
and  pass  to  specific  inventions  not  particularly  belonging  to  the  fac- 
tory system  as  a  whole ;  but  if  specific  illustrations  are  deemed  nec- 
essary we  can  point  briefly  to  the  question  of  the  hours  of  labor, 
which,  under  the  factory  system,  have  been  reduced  from  thirteen, 
fourteen,  and  fifteen  to  eight,  nine,  and  ten  a  day.  This  has  been 
the  result  of  economic  forces  supported  by  law.  While  the  working 
time  has  been  greatly  reduced,  the  remuneration  for  labor  has  been 
correspondingly  increased,  wages  under  the  system  being,  at  the 
lowest  estimate,  double  what  they  were  seventy-five  years  ago,  and 
in  most  instances  two  or  three  times  what  they  were  under  the  hand 
system.  These  are  the  benefits  to  the  workers  themselves.  Society 
has  benefited  through  the  greater  productive  power  of  the  workers 
and  the  cheapening  of  the  products  of  manufactures.  Under  the 
old  hand  system  a  common  linen  sheet  cost  the  worker  at  least 
thirty-two  days  of  hard  labor.  At  the  present  time  it  can  be  secured 
as  the  result  of  but  a  few  hours  of  labor.  Such  illustrations  could 
be  carried  on  indefinitely,  but  they  all  lead  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  modern  system  brings  mental  friction  and  a  contact  of  mind  with 
mind  which  could  not  exist  under  the  old  system.  It  brings  prog- 
ress and  intelligence ;  it  establishes  at  the  centers  the  public  hall  for 
the  lyceum  and  the  concert,  and  as  an  educational  force  its  power 
cannot  be  contradicted.  These  statements  are  emphasized  by  the 
fact  that  prior  to  the  factory  system  there  had  been  no  particular 
progress  in  the  methods  of  production. 

The  Cotton  Gin.  The  invention  of  the  cotton  gin  stimulated  the 
rapid  expansion  of  the  factory  system,  so  far  as  it  comprehends  the 
production  of  textiles.  Prior  to  the  cotton  gin  the  cotton  wool,  as 


28  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

it  used  to  be  called,  was  separated  from  the  seeds  by  hand,  a  slow, 
tedious  process  that  rendered  the  product  of  the  textile  factories  ex- 
pensive, and  crippled  the  volume  of  production,  but  with  the  cotton 
gin  these  difficulties  were  removed.  It  was  an  American  invention, 
and  it  had  a  vast  influence  upon  the  welfare  of  mankind,  because 
that  welfare  has  been  greatly  enhanced  by  the  power  created  to 
clothe  the  people.  As  one  of  its  results,  the  exportation  of  cotton 
goods  from  England  was  made  possible  and  the  carrying  of  clothing 
to  remote  parts  of  the  world  successful.  It  has  been  said  that  the 
cotton  gin  gave  a  new  lease  to  the  slave  system  by  making  the  labor 
of  the  slaves  profitable,  whereas  under  the  hand  methods  it  was  not  so 
profitable,  and  thus  that  the  cotton  gin  had  a  dwarfing  influence  upon 
human  welfare.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  general  results  of  the  effect 
of  the  cotton  gin  were  in  the  interest  of  the  human  race,  although 
locally  it  may  have  been  detrimental  to  a  particular  class  of  people. 

Illuminating  Gas.  Mankind  is  greatly  indebted  to  the  inventions 
which  led  to  the  practice  of  lighting  cities  and  towns  artificially.  The 
invention  of  illuminating  gas  and  the  appliances  by  which  it  could  be 
utilized  must  be  considered  as  one  of  the  greatest  civilizers  of  the 
age.  Prior  to  such  practice  cities  were  dark  and  furnished  the  very 
best  opportunities  for  crime.  With  the  lighting  of  cities  crime  de- 
creased and  the  people  were  safer  in  their  daily  pursuits.  While  the 
lighting  of  cities  can  hardly  be  classed  among  machinery,  neverthe- 
less the  discovery  of  the  qualities  of  illuminating  gas  involved  the 
construction  of  machinery  by  which  it  could  be  utilized,  and  it  is  one 
of  the  great  inventions  which  have  helped  mankind  in  its  upward 
struggle. 

Steam  and  Electricity.  While  steam  served  to  make  the  factory 
system  possible  and  effective,  it  revolutionized  the  affairs  of  the 
world,  and,  taken  in  connection  with  the  application  of  devices  for 
making  electricity  serve  the  people,  gave  new  impetus  to  knowledge 


MODERN   MACHINERY.  29 

and  brought  all  peoples  into  neighborly  relations.  Steam  and  elec- 
trical appliances  must  go  together,  because  the  generation  of  elec- 
tricity for  any  large  uses  depends  upon  a  motive  power  outside  of 
itself,  and  steam  is  more  generally  used  in  the  generation  of  electric 
current  than  water,  although  water  is  beginning  to  be  used  wherever 
the  power  can  be  applied  with  the  most  satisfactory  results  ;  but 
water  power  is  not  modern,  while  steam  is.  With  steam  and  elec- 
tricity and  the  rapid  transmission  of  intelligence  and  transportation 
of  products,  the  real  face  of  industry  and  of  commerce  has  been 
changed.  Steam  is  applied  as  well  to  the  loading  of  vessels  as  to 
the  power  which  moves  them  when  loaded.  Prices  of  commodities 
are  thus  equalized.  The  telegraph  announces  the  condition  of  the 
markets  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  steam  responds  in  supplying 
the  waste  places.  By  the  two  great  forces  famines  have  been  re- 
duced and  in  great  degree  become  entirely  impossible,  but  when 
they  do  occur  the  impulses  of  the  people  are  first  moved  by  electric- 
ity to  supply  those  suffering,  and  by  steam  the  actual  supplies  are 
carried  quickly  where  needed.  Thus  under  steam  and  electricity  the 
human  race  becomes  a  great  brotherhood  instead  of  a  collection  of 
segregated  peoples,  each  caring  for  itself  and  little  or  nothing  for  the 
other.  In  the  deepest  philosophical  sense,  then,  steam  and  electric- 
ity embody  inventions  in  the  modern  world  to  which  the  human  race 
owes  an  enormous  debt,  which  it  can  pay  only  by  appreciating  the 
resulting  benefits  and  conducting  itself  in  accordance  therewith. 

Steam  and  Electrical  Appliances.  But  the  appliances  which 
enable  mankind  to  utilize  steam  and  electricity  constitute  the  true 
inventions,  for  the  powers  that  lead  to  these  inventions  are  natural. 
These  appliances  have  raised  the  grade  of  labor  everywhere.  They 
have  made  possible  great  engineering  enterprises  which  could  not 
have  been  carried  out  without  them.  Electrical  and  steam  engineer- 
ing call  for  a  higher  grade  of  skill  than  could  have  been  utilized  in 


3°  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

any  occupation  under  the  old  system.  This  means  higher  wages  of 
salaries  and  a  higher  grade  of  men.  Men,  therefore,  are  constantly 
stepping  from  ordinary  industrial  walks  of  life  into  higher  callings 
made  possible  by  steam  and  electricity,  thus  adding  practically  and 
really  to  the  demand  for  labor  of  all  kinds,  increasing  thereby  the 
general  proportion  of  the  population  engaged  in  remunerative  labor. 
The  invention  of  the  telephone,  the  expansion  of  the  telegraph,  and 
the  various  other  appliances  for  the  use  of  a  great  natural  power  are 
constantly  adding  to  the  opportunities  in  life  for  engaging  in  a  high 
grade  of  employment. 

Electric  Street  Car.  Perhaps  one  of  the  most' effective  devices 
to  which  electricity  has  been  applied  is  the  trolley  car.  A  considera- 
tion of  the  modern  means  of  rapid  transit  in  our  great  cities  and  be- 
tween cities  and  the  rural  districts  immediately  surrounding  them 
leads  to  the  conclusion  that,  sociologically,  no  invention  or  applica- 
tion of  inventions  has  been  so  potent  during  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century  as  the  electric  street  car.  The  men  who  work  for  wages  are 
enabled  by  it  to  remove  from  the  congested  districts  of  cities,  where 
their  working  places  are  located,  to  the  healthful  surroundings  of  the 
country,  and  this  very  influence  is  tending  to  depopulate  congested 
cities.  Statistics  show  that  in  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Boston, 
London,  and  no  doubt  in  other  cities  could  the  facts  be  ascertained, 
there  is  a  constant  decrease  in  the  number  of  people  living  in  the 
congested  districts  of  cities.  Of  course  there  is  another  influence 
helping  this  movement;  that  is,  the  necessity  for  erecting  great  busi- 
ness houses.  This  deprives  the  inhabitants  of  such  districts  of  house 
room,  and  they  are  obliged  to  move  into  the  suburbs.  The  trolley 
car  helps  them  in  this  movement.  On  the  other  hand,  the  suburban 
population  is  given  the  privilege,  at  cheap  rates,  of  working  in  the 
cities  during  the  day  and  returning  home  at  night. 

Much   is  said    about  the  concentration    of    population  in  cities. 


MODERN   MACHINERY.  31 

The  concentration  is  not  in  the  cities  proper,  but  in  the  suburban 
districts  surrounding  them.  Here  those  who  come  from  the  country 
and  find  work  in  the  city  make  their  homes.  Here  those  who  are 
crowded  out  of  the  city  also  make  their  homes.  These  two  forces 
meet,  and  are  together  constituting  one  of  the  grandest  populations 
the  world  has  seen.  The  influences  in  these  movements,  resulting 
directly  from  the  invention  of  methods  by  which  electricity  can  be 
applied,  have  a  marked  and  decisive  effect  on  human  welfare.  They 
save  labor;  they  save  exhaustion;  they  preserve  physical  strength, 
and  in  turn  they  help  stimulate  the  mind  and  lead  to  a  higher  in- 
tellectual growth,  for  education  is  necessary  not  only  to  the  compre- 
hension of  these  things  but  to  their  practical  application. 

Elevators.  A  modern  invention  which  has  enabled  the  "business 
man  to  accomplish  more  in  a  day  and  with  less  fatigue  than  of  old  is 
the  elevator  in  business  and  public  buildings.  The  elevator  can 
hardly  be  considered  as  an  individual  invention,  but  it  represents 
the  application  of  well-known  mechanical  devices  set  in  motion  by 
steam,  water,  or  electricity  in  such  a  way  as  to  benefit  the  human 
being  individually.  The  old-time  stairway  exists,  but  is  not  much 
used.  The  elevator  takes  one  easily  and  rapidly  to  any  height  and 
without  any  fatigue.  It  has  made  the  upper  stories  of  business  and 
public  buildings  just  as  desirable  as  the  lower  ones,  and  in  fact  far 
more  desirable,  for  in  the  upper  stories  the  professional  or  business 
man  can  spend  his  days  with  good  light  and  air;  hence,  physically 
and  in  a  hygienic  sense,  the  elevator  is  a  blessing  for  mankind. 

Clothing.  The  application  of  invention  to  the  manufacture  of 
clothing,  including  boots  and  shoes,  has  resulted  not  only  in  securing 
better  conditions  of  health  but  in  making  life  itself  easier  and  more 
congenial.  A  fairly  well-dressed  man  or  woman  is  certainly  a  better 
type  than  a  shabbily  dressed  one,  and  under  modern  invention 
clothing  can  be  procured  cheaper  than  at  any  time  during  the  last 


32  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

century,  and  of  a  quality  which  surprises  one  when  the  price  is  con- 
sidered. But  the  most  effective  and  perhaps  far-reaching  influences 
from  the  manufacture  of  clothing  are  to  be  found  in  waterproof 
fabrics.  Rubber  is  a  natural  product,  but  the  application  of  it  to 
the  uses  of  man  took  inventive  genius,  and  to  apply  it  so  that  tex- 
tiles could  be  made  waterproof  took  still  further  invention.  Water- 
proof clothing,  therefore,  is  not  only  an  invention  of  itself,  but  its 
manufacture  required  other  inventions  applicable  alike  to  other 
classes  of  goods.  The  health  and  welfare  of  the  people  have  been 
enhanced  many  fold  by  the  use  of  waterproof  clothing,  and,  indeed, 
one  can  hardly  estimate  the  benefits  of  the  inventions  which  led  to 
its  practical  use.  Life  is  safer,  health  is  securer,  longevity  is  en- 
hanced *by  the  use  of  modern  waterproof  goods. 

Sewing  Machine.  The  sewing  machine  may  be  considered  as  one 
of  the  important  modern  inventions  which  have  had  a  decided  influ- 
ence upon  human  welfare.  It  has  not  only  increased  the  working 
capacity  of  the  people,  but  it  has  brought  into  existence  a  new  line 
of  occupations.  The  construction  of  the  machines  themselves,  the 
great  efforts  necessary  to  put  them  on  the  market,  and  their  special 
uses  when  brought  into  active  employment,  all  lead  to  an  expansion 
of  industry  and,  hence,  to  an  expansion  in  the  number  of  employ- 
ments open  to  men  and  women.  They  have  supplemented  to  a 
great  extent  the  inventions  of  shoe  machinery,  and  enabled  manu- 
facturers to  produce  most  excellent  goods  at  a  low  price.  They 
have  made  the  sewing-girl's  life  more  endurable,  and  have  helped  to 
cultivate  a  taste  in  clothing  by  the  opportunities  to  use  forms  and 
devices  in  the  make-up  of  dress  goods  that  would  not  have  been 
thought  of  under  the  old  hand  methods.  There  are,  to  be  sure, 
evils  in  the  use  of  the  sewing  machine,  as  in  the  use  of  all  machines, 
but  when  judiciously  used  it  must  be  considered  as  one  of  those  in- 
ventions the  loss  of  which  could  not  be  tolerated. 


MODERN    MACHINERY.  33 

Typewriter.  The  modern  typewriter  has  expanded  human  pos- 
sibilities from  four  to  six  fold.  A  few  months  ago  the  writer  listened 
to  a  statement  by  the  president  of  one  of  our  largest  universities. 
"The  topic  of  the  conversation  turned  upon  human  abilities  and  their 
limitations.  He  said  that  with  the  use  of  the  typewriter  he  could 
accomplish  from  four  to  six  times  as  much  as  he  was  formerly  able  to 
accomplish  without  it.  Hence  his  usefulness  was  greater  to  man- 
kind and  his  business  abilities  far  superior  to  those  of  old.  He 
said  he  did  not  see  how  by  any  possible  invention  he  could  increase 
his  product  of  work,  and  the  testimony  he  gave  was  the  clearest  on 
the  subject  that  could  be  obtained.  Take  a  business  house,  for  in- 
stance. The  vast  correspondence  necessary  to  the  conduct  of  the 
great  establishments  of  the  present  day  could  not  be  carried  on 
without  the  use  of  the  typewriting  machine.  A  business  man  takes 
up  his  correspondence  in  the  morning,  dictates  his  replies,  and  after 
an  hour  or  two  is  at  liberty  to  attend  to  other  affairs,  giving  his  at- 
tention to  the  details  of  his  house,  whereas  formerly  it  would  have 
taken  him  quite  if  not  all  day  to  accomplish,  so  far  as  correspond- 
ence is  concerned,  what  he  easily  accomplishes  in  an  hour.  So  with 
official  business  the  same  is  true,  and  the  fact  that  the  use  of  the 
typewriter  has  opened  an  occupation  in  life  not  known  before  offsets 
some  of  the  displacements  that  take  place  when  machines  are  first 
applied.  The  education  necessary  for  an  efficient  typewriter  operator 
has  stimulated  school  work.  One  cannot  become  a  successful  and 
intelligent  operator  of  the  typewriting  machine  unless  he  under- 
stands more  than  the  old  hand  copyist  was  expected  to  know.  The 
typewriter  operator  must  be  well  grounded  in  grammar  and  in  all 
that  belongs  to  it ;  he  must  understand  the  construction  of  sentences 
and  the  use  of  capitals  and  punctuation  marks,  and  in  general  must 
be  a  well-read,  well-educated  man.  As  an  occupation  for  women, 
typewriting  offers  a  respectable  and  an  intellectual  class  of  work. 


34  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

Anaesthetics.  An  invention  which  cannot  possibly  be  called  a 
machine,  but  which  has  had  perhaps  as  great  an  influence  on  the  hu- 
man race  as  any  invention  that  can  be  named,  is  that  of  anaesthetics. 
It  has  removed  the  horrors  of  surgical  operations;  it  has  saved  life* 
where  under  the  same  operation  life  would  have  been  lost ;  it  has  en- 
abled the  skillful  surgeon  to  do  what  he  could  not  do  without  their 
application.  Under  the  old  way,  when  the  patient  was  obliged  with 
full  consciousness  to  undergo  an  operation,  the  surgeon  would  often 
stop  short  of  the  minute  investigations  necessary  to  ascertain  the 
real  cause  of  existing  difficulties,  but  with  the  patient  safely  uncon- 
scious the  surgeon  can  carry  his  study  and  inquiry  to  as  great  an 
extent  as  may  be  found  necessary.  Often,  after  an  intelligent 
diagnosis,  when  a  surgeon  begins  to  operate  he  finds  complications 
which  he  did  not  foresee.  The  use  of  anaesthetics  enables  him  to 
work  until  he  removes  all  obstructions  and  to  make  a  complete  in- 
stead of  an  incomplete  operation.  Human  life  is  therefore  worth 
more  on  account  of  this  invention  or  discovery.  Diseased  condi- 
tions yield  where  they  would  not  have  yielded ;  hence,  while  an- 
aesthetics cannot  be  classed,  as  stated,  with  machines,  they  must  be 
classed  with  inventions  and  with  those  that  have  had  the  very  great- 
est influence  on  the  welfare  of  the  human  race. 

Agricultural  Machinery.  The  application  of  machinery  to  agri- 
cultural pursuits  has  been  slow  and  difficult  but  successful.  The 
single,  small  farmer  cannot  afford  to  own  and  operate  expensive  ma- 
chines. The  farmer  on  a  great  scale  reduces  farming  to  a  manufac- 
ture, almost,  for  he  uses  machinery  in  every  direction.  Under  its  use 
it  is  rarely  necessary  for  him  to  touch  a  -tool,  and  in  the  harvesting 
of  some  crops  he  need  not  touch  the  product  from  the  Ume  of  the 
sowing  of  the  seed  till  it  is  sent  to  market.  He  does  no-L  touch  it  in 
the  sowing,  nor  in  the  'cultivating,  nor  in  harvesting  or  threshing,  nor 
in  transportation  or  milling.  He  may  put  his  hand  to  it  when  he 


MODERN    MACHINERY.  35 

comes  to  use  it  as  a  food.  This  result  has  induced  the  small  farmer 
to  engage  in  co-operative  enterprises,  by  which  a  number  of  neigh- 
bors club  together  and  purchase  the  necessary  machines.  The 
application  of  machinery  to  agriculture  has  not  resulted  in  what  was 
feared  a  few  years  ago,  the  bonanza  farm.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
average  size  of  farms  in  the  United  States  constantly  decreases,  but 
intensive  farming  increases.  The  land  is  made  to  produce  more 
and  in  a  cleaner  way  by  the  use  of  machinery. 

It  is  wonderful  how  many  ramifications  there  are  to  this  use  of 
machinery,  and  to  enumerate  all  the  different  features  of  such  use 
would  lead  us  too  far  afield,  just  as  it  would  to  undertake  to  enu- 
merate the  machines  necessary  under  the  factory  system.  One  con- 
crete illustration  may  be  given,  however,  which  will  clearly  show  the 
power  of  machinery  in  agriculture.  It  takes  one  hundred  minutes 
to  shell  corn  enough  by  hand  to  make  one  bushel  of  shelled  corn, 
and  one  minute  to  shell  the  same  quantity  by  steam  shelling  devices. 
Applying  this  to  the  crop  of  one  of  our  large  corn-raising  states, 
which  last  year  produced  almost  two  hundred  million  bushels  of 
corn,  it  is  found  that  to  have  shelled  this  amount  of  corn  by  hand 
would  have  occupied  each  person  in  the  state  over  ten  years  of  age 
9.5  days,  while  it  would  have  taken  the  male  population  ten  years  of 
age  and  over  nineteen  days.  The  work  was  accomplished  by  machin- 
ery in  fifty-six  and  four  fifths  minutes  for  each  person  of  the  popula- 
tion over  ten  years  of  age. .  Such  illustrations,  of  course,  could  be 
calculated  for  various  crops,  but  this  one  is  sufficient. 

It  may  be  asked,  What  is  the  practical  value  of  the  use  of  agri- 
cultural machinery  unless  the  price  of  the  product  is  correspondingly 
decreased?  The  price  is  decreased,  and  food  is  cheaper  on  the 
whole  as  time  goes  on  and  as  machinery  is  more  generally  applied ; 
but  the  great  benefit. is  that  it  enables  this  country  to  raise  and  mar- 
ket such  immense  quantities  of  wheat,  corn,  and  all  the  great  staple 


36  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

products  as  not  only  to  supply  its  own  demands  but  to  furnish  other 
countries  witn  food,  and  at  a  price  fairly  satisfactory  to  the  toilers. 
Machinery  has  enabled  the  producer  to  sell  crops  at  such  a  price  as 
to  warrant  their  exportation,  and  so  the  United  States  is  the  great 
food  supplying  nation  of  the  world.  The  great  industries  of  Eng- 
land and  some  other  countries  could  not  well  be  carried  on  without 
the  necessary  supplies  from  this  country.  This  very  power  of  the 
United  States  in  respect  to  agricultural  products  is  augmented  by  the 
use  of  machinery  in  the  slaughtering  of  cattle  and  in  the  preparation 
and  transportation  of  meat.  Transportation  has  reduced  the  ex- 
pense to  such  a  degree  that  a  whole  year's  supply  of  food  can  be 
brought  from  the  West  to  the  East  at  a  very  small  cost ;  and  while 
the  East  does  not  compete  with  the  West  in  these  respects,  and  can- 
not do  so,  it  is  allowed  to  devote  its  attention  to  the  manufacture  of 
other  things,  it  being  cheaper,  far  more  so  indeed,  to  secure  its  food 
supplies  from  other  parts  of  the  country.  And  now  the  use  of 
machinery  in  mining  coal  is  augmenting  the  transportation  of  agri- 
cultural supplies.  It  is  furnishing  not  only  the  food  to  enable  for- 
eign countries  to  continue  their  industrial  enterprises  but  the  fuel 
with  which  to  run  their  establishments.  So  machinery  is  vitalizing 
every  productive  force  of  the  United  States  and  enabling  it  to  assume 
supremacy  in  its  productive  capacity,  in  its  actual  productions,  and 
in  its  commerce. 

Printing.  One  other  illustration  showing  how  human  welfare  is 
enhanced  by  the  application  of  machinery  must  suffice  at  the  present 
time,  and  that  illustration  is  to  be  drawn  from  printing.  As  printing 
was  the  first  great  invention  which  influenced  the  world,  so  it  is  the 
latest  in  the  same  direction.  The  use  of  movable  types  required 
composition  by  hand,  and  the  methods  of  composition  met  with  no 
improvement,  except  through  the  form  of  the  type  and  means  for 
their  adjustment  and  their  use  upon  the  presses,  until  within  a  very 


MODERN   MACHINERY.  37 

few  years,  when  the  typesetting  machines  were  perfected.  Under 
the  old  method  of  composition  a  fairly  expert  compositor  could  set 
1000  ems  an  hour,  while  with  the  use  of  the  linotype  machine  he 
can  set  4500  ems  in  the  same  time.  This  invention  followed  the 
perfected  presses,  which  embody  the  very  magic  of  inventive 
genius.  One  of  the  latest  sextuple  stereotype  perfecting  presses 
has  an  aggregate  running  capacity  of  72,000  eight-page  papers  per 
hour.  One  pressman  and  four  skilled  laborers  using  one  of  these 
presses  will  print,  cut  at  the  top,  fold,  paste,  and  count  (with  a  sup- 
plement inserted  if  desired)  72,000  eight-page  papers  in  one  hour. 
With  the  old  hand  press  it  would  have  taken  a  man  and  a  boy  one  hun- 
dred days,  working  ten  hours  per  day,  to  produce  the  same  results. 
The  power  of  the  press,  therefore,  is  enhanced  many  fold ;  it  cannot 
be  calculated.  Its  use  is  revolutionizing  many  affairs,  and  among 
them  there  is  no  greater  revolution  than  that  seen  in  the  conduct  of 
a  political  campaign.  Printer's  ink  is  rapidly  taking  the  place  of  the 
stump  orator.  In  1896  there  were  sent  out  from  party  headquarters 
nearly  two  hundred  million  copies  of  documents.  This  feat  could 
not  have  been  accomplished  without  the  use  of  the  modern  power 
press. 

We  need  not  discuss  some  of  the  evils  of  the  modern  press,  for 
we  can  all  gratefully  acknowledge  the  fact  that  the  balance  of  in- 
fluence is  on  the  side  of  good,  and  vastly  so.  Campaign  committees 
understand  perfectly  well  that  the  intelligence  of  the  people  is  to  be 
reached  by  comprehensive  statements  of  fact.  The  orator  may  deal 
with  many  generalities  and  introduce  many  statements  that  cannot 
be  supported  by  facts,  but  a  printed  document  must  be  in  the  main 
true  and  unassailable.  So  leaflets  and  short  pamphlets  are  sent  out 
by  the  million  to  the  farmers  and  the  mechanics  of  the  country,  giv- 
ing them  the  opportunity  to  sit  down  quietly  by  themselves  and 
study  the  statements  instead  of  listening  to  the  oratory  and  generali- 


38  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

ties  of  the  stump  speaker.  The  personality  of  the  political  speaker 
will  always  hold  its  place  and  have  its  force,  but  with  a  rapidly  in- 
creasing population  he  cannot  reach  every  one.  The  printing  press 
can,  and  hence  it  is  utilized  in  the  most  effective  way  by  political 
parties. 

Practical  Results  of  Modern  Printing  Processes.  The  cheap- 
ening of  books  is  the  direct  result  of  invention.  It  is  a  pretty  poor 
specimen  of  humanity  that  cannot  at  the  present  time  avail  himself 
of  some  reading  matter.  He  is  surrounded  by  it  on  every  hand  ;  he 
finds  it  everywhere.  The  very  best  books  are  brought  out  in  cheap 
editions,  and  one  may  read  and  study  to  any  extent  he  may  desire, 
and  under  our  modern  methods  the  desire  generally  exists.  A 
farmer  up  in  New  England,  in  talking  with  a  bright  New  York  busi- 
ness man,  said:  "  You  men  in  New  York  are  pretty  smart  and  know 
a  great  deal,  but  let  me  tell  you  that  you  know  it  only  a  few  hours 
before  we  do."  This  is  true.  The  printing  press  drives  the  informa- 
tion from  the  great  centers  out  into  the  country  districts  in  every 
direction.  This  could  not  be  done  without  the  power  presses  that 
are  used. 

Effect  of  Machinery  on  Labor.  The  antagonism  to  the  use  of 
machinery  in  production  is  usually  concentrated  in  the  argument 
that  by  its  use  a  decreasing  number  of  persons  is  employed.  This 
argument  creates  apprehension  and  often  leads  to  bitter  strife.  An 
examination  of  all  the  facts  bearing  upon  this  point  teaches,  however, 
that  the  apprehension  is  not  well  grounded;  that  while  machines  on 
their  introduction  may  and  often  do  displace  labor,  the  general  result 
is  .to  secure  an  increase  in  the  number  employed.  The  great  number 
of  new  occupations  that  have  been  opened  by  the  introduction  of 
machinery,  the  vast  works  necessary  for  its  construction,  and  the 
bringing  in  of  a  large  body  to  distribute  the  products  of  machinery 
lead  to  the  belief  that  the  argument  has  no  real  foundation,  Statis- 


MODERN    MACHINERY.  39 

tics  prove  also  that  the  proportion  of  the  whole  population  employed 
in  machine-using  countries  is  constantly  increasing  and  that  the  pro- 
portion of  skilled  to  unskilled  workers  is  constantly  enlarged. 

The  illustrations  given  relate  almost  entirely  to  American  inven- 
tions. Cotton  machinery  belongs  to  the  English,  steam  is  an 
international  matter,  and  the  other  great  inventions  referred  to  are 
distinctively,  if  not  wholly,  American.  Ether,  while  discovered  in 
Europe,  owes  its  practical  application  to  American  ingenuity,  while 
the  discovery  of  chloroform  is  strictly  American.  Variations  of 
these  inventions  have  been  made  by  other  nations,  but  the  initiative 
genius  in  them  has  been  American.  The  Americans  constitute  the 
most  intense  type  of  machine-using  people,  and  hence  illustrate  more 
broadly  than  any  other  the  benefits  which  machinery  has  brought 
to  mankind. 

As  a  summary,  we  may  enumerate  the  wonders  of  American 
invention.  They  are  the  cotton  gin,  the  adaptation  of  steam  to 
methods  of  transportation,  the  application  of  electricity  in  business 
pursuits,  agricultural  machinery,  the  modern  power  printing  press, 
the  ocean  cable,  the  sewing  machine,  waterproof  goods,  the  type- 
writing machine,  and  anaesthetics.  These  may  be  called  the  great 
wonders  of  American  invention. 


POWER. 


ITS  PRODUCTION   AND   USE. 


What  Energy  is  —  How  a  Steam  Engine  Works  —  Essential  Parts  of  a  Steam  Engine 
—  Practical  Efficiency  —  Steam  Engine  Records  —  The  Limit  Nearly  Reached  —  Evolution 
of  the  Steam  Engine — Denis  Papin  —  Thomas  Newcomen  —  Watt  and  Boulton  —  Corliss 
Engines — Man's  Debt  to  the  Steam  Engine  —  Evolution  of  the  Locomotive — The  Ste- 
phensons — Rainhill  Contest  —  First  Locomotives  in  America  —  Growth  of  Locomotives  — 
Fastest  Trains  in  the  World —  How  Gas  Engines  Work  —  Advantages  of  Gas  Engines  — 
Compressed  Air — Liquid  Air — Fallacies  and  Uses  —  Mining  Horrors  —  Safety  Lamp  — 
Ericsson's  Sun  Motor. 


M 


AN  has  increased  his  productive  powers  by 
making  certain  animals  his  beasts  of  bur- 
den and  allying  with  his  puny  strength  certain 
powerful  forces  of  nature.  Windmills  are  of  a 
very  ancient  origin,  the  power  of  falling  water 
was  early  appreciated  and  applied,  but  the  great- 
est stride  was  made  when  the  expansive  force  of 
steam  was  recognized  and  led  captive. 

In    order   to    clearly  and    easily   understand 
the  manner  in  which  steam  engines,  gas  engines, 

dynamos,  compressed  air  and  military  explosives  do  their  work,  it 
will  be  advisable  to  briefly  call  attention  to  the  manner  in  which 
certain  forms  of  energy,  as  heat,  are  made  to  labor  for  the  good 
of  man. 

What  Energy  is.  Energy  is  a  convenient  expression  for  an 
ideal  measure  of  certain  forces  or  reactions  in  nature,  such  as  light, 
motion,  heat.  The  sun  is  the  source  of  energy,  which  it  gives  off  to 


POWER.  41 

the  earth  in  the  form  of  heat.  The  sun's  heat  falling  upon  the 
earth's  surface  produces  changes  in  temperature,  causing  atmospheric 
currents,  which  man  has  utilized  to  turn  his  windmills  and  propel  his 
ships.  The  sun's  rays  falling  upon  bodies  of  water  cause  vapor  to 
rise,  which  descends  later  as  rain,  and,  gathering  into  rills,  brooks, 
creeks,  and  rivers  in  obedience  to  the  law  of  gravitation,  returns  to 
Mother  Ocean.  Seizing  advantages  of  broken  surface,  man  has 
thrown  dams  across  these  streams  and  utilized  the  falling  water  to 
turn  his  water  wheels,  to  move  machinery,  to  spin  the  threads  of  his 
clothing  or  to  grind  his  grain  for  bread. 

Correlation  of  Energy.  In  prehistoric  times  the  heat  of  the  sun 
falling  upon  the  earth  was  absorbed  by  gigantic  forests,  later  to  be 
changed  into  coal,  familiarly  known  as  "  bottled  sunshine."  This 
same  coal,  burned  in  a  furnace,  may  change  water  into  steam  to  move 
an  engine,  to  turn  a  dynamo,  to  furnish  power  for  an  electric  light 
for  a  city.  It  is  evident  from  this  that  energy  of  one  kind  may  be 
changed  into -another,  and  from  this  has  been  deduced  the  law  of 
Correlation  of  Energy:  "All  kinds  of  energy  are  so  related  to  one 
another,  that  energy  of  one  kind  may  be  changed  into  energy  of 
another  kind." 

Conservation  of  Energy  is  another  principle.  "When  one 
form  of  energy  disappears,  an  exact  equivalent  of  another  form 
always  takes  its  place,  so  that  the  sum  total  of  energy  is  un- 
changed." On  these  two  principles  rest  the  foundations  of  physical 
science.  Energy,  no  more  than  matter,  can  be  annihilated. 

For  convenience,  common  measures  or  units  of  these  forces  have 
been  adopted.  The  power  of  work  of  the  steam  engine  is  usually 
expressed  in  one  of  three  such  units.  The  force  required  to  raise 
one  pound  one  foot  is  known  as  a  foot-pound.  This  has  no  reference 
to  time,  but  is  a  measure  of  pure  force.  When  work  to  be  per- 
formed is  measured  the  element  of  time  enters  in.  The  force  re- 


42  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

quired  to  raise  778  pounds  avoirdupois  one  foot  (778  foot-pounds)  is 
sufficient  to  raise  the  temperature  of  one  pound  of  water  from  39° 
to  40°  Fahrenheit.  This  amount  of  heat  is  called  a  British  thermal 
unit,  and  the  required  force,  its  mechanical  equivalent. 

Horse-power.  The  steam  engines  of  Watt  were  largely  used  in 
coal  mines  and  took  the  place  of  many  horses.  As  a  matter  of  con- 
venience it  was  desirable  to  have  the  power  of  an  engine  expressed 
in  such  terms  that  it  could  be  compared  with  the  work  of  a  horse. 
The  raising  of  33,000  pounds  one  foot  high  in  a  minute  was  found 
to  be  about  as  much  work  as  the  best  horse  could  do.  This  was  taken 
as  a  unit  of  measure  of  work.  From  it  we  have  the  horse-power,  or 
the  force  required  to  raise  33,000  pounds  one  foot  in  a  minute,  or 
for  a  horse-power-hour  sixty  times  that  of  a  horse-power,  or  the  force 
required  to  raise  1,980,000  pounds  one  foot  in  one  hour. 

Carriers  of  Heat.  In  steam  or  other  forms  of  heat  engines, 
pressure  is  an  effect,  not  a  cause.  It  is  produced  by  subjecting  some 
vehicle  to  the  action  of  heat.  .  Hydrogen  gas  will  absorb  the  most 
heat  and  water  stands  next.  The  abundance  of  water  renders  it  a 
cheap  and  convenient  carrier  of  heat,  for  the  work  steam  does  is  all 
caused  by  the  amount  of  heat  it  carries.  Water  is  made  up  of 
molecules,  each  composed  of  two  atoms  of  hydrogen  and  one  atom 
of  oxygen.  The  molecules  are  in  active  motion  and  so  small  that 
each  has  a  range  of  motion  greater  than  its  own  dimensions.  Lord 
Kelvin  estimated  that  if  a  drop  of  water  were  magnified  to  the  size 
of  the  earth  its  molecules  would  be  about  the  size  of  a  pea.  The 
size  of  an  atom  is  inconceivable,  for  our  molecules  are  composed  of 
several  atoms. 

Heat  Causes  Motion.  When  heat  is  applied  to  water  its  mole- 
cules move  so  rapidly  and  bump  against  each  other  so  hard  that  the 
water  cannot  hold  together  as  a  liquid  and  separates  or  expands  into 
steam.  As  more  heat  is  applied  the  molecules  move  farther  and 


POWER.  43 

faster  until  the  expansive  force  of  the  steam  confined  becomes  ter- 
rific. If  these  molecules  move  more  rapidly  as  heat  is  applied 
to  them,  they  also  move  more  slowly  as  the  heat  is  taken  away  from 
them. 

Limit  of  Motion.  There  is  a  point  at  which  all  molecular  mo- 
tion stops.  It  has  never  yet  been  reached  by  experimenters,  but  it 
is  known  to  be  about  461  °,  or,  to  be  exact,  460.7  °,  below  the  zero 
of  the  Fahrenheit  scale.  Life  depends  upon  heat,  and  there  is  no 
heat  at  the  absolute  zero.  At  this  point  not  only  would  all  life  be 
dead,  but  all  matter  would  be  dead. 

Combustion.  In  ordinary  practice  heat  is  produced  by  combus- 
tion and,  leaving  out  the  curiosities  of  the  chemist's  laboratory, 
means  the  uniting  of  some  substance  with  oxygen,  their  union  pro- 
ducing heat.  The  substance  with  which  the  oxygen  will  unite  is 
called  a  combustible.  The  substance  containing  the  oxygen  is  called 
an  oxidizer,  or  a  supporter  of  combustion.  In  furnace  combustion 
a  combustible,  like  carbon  or  hydrogen,  is  supplied  in  the  fuel,  and 
the  oxygen  is  supplied  by  the  atmosphere,  an  abundant  and  cheap 
supporter  of  combustion.  Of  all  combustibles  hydrogen  gives  off 
the  most  heat.  One  pound  of  it,  consumed  at  a  high  temperature, 
with  oxygen  in  the  proportion  to  form  water  (H  2  O)  will  yield  62,- 
032  thermal  units,  or  more  than  four  times  as  much  as  carbon. 
Hydrogen  will  not  burn  at  a  low  temperature.  Hydrogen  is  found 
in  "  marsh  gas  "  (CH4  )  and  consumed  in  the  "  Bunsen  burner  "  gives 
the  characteristic  intense  heat  with  little  light. 

Carbon  is  the  most  common  combustible.  It  constitutes  about 
50  per  cent,  of  wood  and  from  40  per  cent,  to  95  per  cent,  of  coal. 
It  will  burn  at  a  lower  temperature  than  hydrogen,  and  consumed 
with  enough  oxygen  to  form  CO  (carbonic  oxide  gas)  will  yield 
4,452  thermal  units  per  pound,  or  mixed  with  enough  oxygen  to 
form  CO2  (carbonic  acid  gas)  will  yield  more  than  three  times  as 


44          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

much  heat,  or  14,500  thermal  units.  We  make  practical  application 
of  this  principle  when  we  open  the  drafts  of  a  stove  and  admit  more 
oxygen  from  the  atmosphere  to  the  fire  to  make  the  latter  give  out 
more  heat.  A  pound  of  carbon  requires  for  perfect  combustion 
2.67  pounds  of  oxygen,  which  must  be  supplied  by  the  atmosphere, 
and  their  union  sets  free  8.94  pounds  of  nitrogen  with  which  the 
oxygen  was  mixed,  for  nitrogen  is  not  combustible  and  serves  only  as 
a  diluent.  The  necessity  of  good  ventilation  in  a  room  where  a  fire, 
lamp,  or  gas  jet  is  burning  is  obvious. 

A  pound  of  coal  contains  carbon,  hydrogen,  oxygen,  sulphur, 
and  earthy  matters  in  varying  proportions.  A  pound  of  the  best 
coal  has  latent  within  it  about  15,000  thermal  units  and  should 
raise  from  95  °  F.  and  evaporate  13%  pounds  of  water  at  atmos- 
pheric pressure. 

How  a  Steam  Engine  Works.  The  steam  engine  is  a  machine 
that  converts  heat 'into  work.  Suitable  fuel  consumed  in  a  furnace 
is  used  to  heat  water  in  a  boiler.  The  water  may  be  within  tubes 
around  which  the  fire  passes  (water  tube  boiler)  or  the  fire  may  pass 
through  tubes  (tubular  boiler)  surrounded  by  water.  A  quantity  of 
water  converted  into  steam  at  the  same  pressure  will  occupy  1700 
times  its  original  bulk,  and,  if  closely  confined,  possesses  great  ex- 
pansive force.  This  force  is  limited  only  by  the  temperature  of  the 
fire  and  the  strength  of  the  boiler.  The  steam  generated  in  the 
boiler  is  confined  and  carried  through  a  pipe  to  a  steam-chest,  con- 
necting by  means  of  openings  called  valves  with  a  cylinder  containing 
a  piston.  (See  Figure  A.)  The  mechanism  is  so  arranged  that  the 
valves  open  and  close  to  admit  or  expel  steam  in  perfect  time  with 
the  stroke  of  the  piston. 

Working  of  a  Slide  Valve.  The  slide  valve  is  the  simplest 
form  used  in  distributing  the  steam  in  a  steam  engine.  It  is  often 
called  the  D-valve,  because  the  moving  part  is  the  shape  of  the  capi- 


POWER. 


45 


St    Ch. 


tal  letter  "D."  This  form  of  valve  has  been  superseded  by  the 
various  forms  of  balance  and  piston  valves' except  in  the  smaller  and 
less  economical  engines,  but 
it  is  the  simplest  form  to 
study  and  from  it  the  action 
of  steam  can  be  most  easily 
understood.  The  accom- 
panying diagrams  will  make 
clear  exactly  what  a  steam 
engine  does  at  each  stroke. 
To  avoid  confusion  only 
the  principal  movements 
will  be  given.  Having  mas- 
tered these  the  reader  can 
follow  out  the  action  of  any 
of  the  complicated  varieties 
if  he  chooses  to  do  so. 

Essential  Parts.  Figure  A  shows  a  cylinder  into  which  steam  is 
admitted  under  pressure  from  the  boilers,  a  tight-fitting  piston 
within  the  cylinder  and  slide  valves  which  open  and  close  the  pas- 
sages through  which  steam  is  admitted  to  or  allowed  to  escape  from 
the  cylinder,  and  the  piston  rod  which  communicates  motion  to  the 
crank. 

Figures  I.,  II.,  III.,  and  IV.  show  in  detail  the  action  of  the 
valve,  the  piston,  and  the  steam. 

Figure  I.  shows  the  relative  position  of  the  parts  at  the  time 
when  steam  is  most  freely  entering  the  cylinder.  The  position  of 
the  crank  and  its  direction  of  rotation  is  shown  by  h.  The  position 
and  direction  of  the  piston  is  represented  at  g,  while  f  shows  the 
same  facts  as  regards  the  valve.  The  valve  moves  back  and  forth 
across  three  openings  (ports)  in  what  is  called  the  valve  seat.  By 


FIG.  A.     ESSENTIAL  PARTS  OF  A  STEAM  ENGINE. 

St.  Ch.=  Steam  Chest;  E.  P.=  Escape  Port.  R.=  Piston  Rod. 
L.  =  Live  Steam,  E.  =  Exhaust  Steam,  and  the  arrow  its  direc- 
tion. P.  =  Piston  Head,  S.  =  Slide  Valve,  and  the  arrow  its 
direction  until  it  assumes  the  position  shown  by  dotted  lines. 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


the  steam  ports,  a  and  b,  the  steam  may  enter  and  leave  the  cylinder, 
and  c  is  the  exhaust  port,  which  communicates  either  with  the  open 
air  or  with  the  condenser.  With  the  valve  in  the  position  shown  in 
Fig.  I.  the  live  steam  (steam  at  the  boiler  pressure)  enters  the  steam 
^_^  port  a,  travels  in  the  course 

^t  J^p^£^  shown  by  the    arrows    and 

^1  w    1^  R^v.  enters  the    interior    of    the 

V      i         C         U  Pr  n     T 

cylinder  at  d.  Here  it  ex- 
erts its  force  upon  the  pis- 
ton and  drives  it  in  the  di- 
rection shown  by  the  arrow. 
The  interior  of  the  cylinder 
represented  as  e  is  full  of 
steam  from  the  last  stroke,  and  to  permit  the  piston  to  move  in  that 
end  of  the  cylinder  this  steam  must  escape.  This  it  does  by  leaving 
the  cylinder  through  the  port  b,  passing  through  a  hollow  in  the  bot- 
tom of  the  valve  to  the  exhaust  port  c.  If  the  valve  were  to  be 
fixed  in  this  position,  the  steam  would  continue  to  enter  the  cylinder 
at  full  boiler  pressure  and  drive  the  piston  to  the  end  d  of  the  cylin- 
der. The  piston  would  in 
turn  drive  all  the  steam  out 
of  e  and  when  the  piston 
had  reached  the  end  of  the 
cylinder,  it  would  come  to 
rest  and  stay  at  rest.  But 
the  valve  is  moving  in  the 
direction  shown  by  the  ar- 
row, and  it  soon  reaches 
the  position  shown  by  Figure  II.,  when  the  next  event  in  the  stroke 
occurs.  The  live  steam  port  has  been  closed  by  the  face  of  the  valve 
completely  covering  it,  and  pressure  shut  off  from  the  boiler,  but  the 


Fig.O 


to 
POWER. 


47 


exhaust  port  is  still  in  communication  with  the  cylinder  end  e.  The 
steam  yet  imprisoned  in  d,  rinding  that  it  can  expand  by  pushing  the 
piston  ahead,  continues  to  do  so.  The  point  at  which  this  expansion 
begins  can  be  varied  and  the  amount  of  live  steam  used  regulated  to 
do  exactly  the  amount  of 
work  required.  This  is  the 
part  of  the  stroke  to  which 
more  thought  has  been  given 
than  any  other,  for  upon 
the  accurate  adjustment  of 
the  ratio  of  expansion  de- 
pends the  economy  of  the 
engine  more  than  on  any 
other  one  feature  of  the  stroke.  As  the  piston  nears  the  end  e,  it 
must  be  slowed  down  and  stopped  in  such  a  manner  as  to  reduce  to 
the  least  possible  amount  the  jar  to  the  engine.  This  is  done  by  ad- 
justing the  valve  to  reach  the  position  shown  in  Figure  III.,  when 
compression  begins.  Expansion  is  still  going  on,  for  the  valve  has 

not  yet  uncovered  the  port 
a,  and  at  this  point  the 
valve  also  covers  the  port  ^, 

thus  imprisoning  the  small 

(~~  .[•  >v       amount    of    steam  still  re- 

^maining  in  e,   and   the    on- 
coming  piston    compresses 
it.       As  it  is  compressed  it 
exerts  a  cushion-like  action  on  the  piston  and  gradually  stops  it. 

How  the  Piston  is  Stopped.  The  point  at  which  compression 
begins  is  so  placed  that  the  steam  in  e  will  at  the  end  of  the  stroke 
have  been  compressed  by  the  force  of  the  steam  in  d  and  the  mo- 
mentum of  the  moving  parts,  until  its  pressure  is  very  little  less  than 


Fig.G? 


48  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

that  of  live  steam.  This  does  three  things.  It  stops  the  piston  so 
it  can  be  started  in  the  other  direction ;  it  allows  the  incoming  steam 
for  the  next  stroke  to  meet  steam  at  nearly  the  same  pressure  and 
thus  keeps  the  engine  from  jumping  and  jerking;  and  it  heats  the 
end  of  the  cylinder  to  the  temperature  of  the  incoming  steam  and  so 
reduces  condensation.  Then  the  event  shown  in  Figure  IV.  takes 
place.  The  valve  moves  a  short  distance  further  and  allows  live 
steam  to  enter  port  b  and  pass  to  cylinder  end  e,  and  at  the  same 
time  throws  open  the  passage  from  port  a  to  the  exhaust  port  c. 

The  Return  Stroke.  The  piston  finds  that  the  steam  which  has 
just  driven  it  into  the  end  of  the  cylinder  is  hurrying  away  through 
the  exhaust  port,  while  on  the  other  side  of  it  there  is  a  new  supply 
of  steam  coming  in  and  insisting  upon  its  retracing  its  course.  This 
it  does,  and  passes  through  exactly  the  same  course  of  events  in  the 
backward  journey.  The  valve  is  so  planned  that  it  works  both 
ways,  and  it  always  turns  and  starts  back  just  after  it  has  seen  the 
piston  safely  started  upon  its  new  stroke.  So  the  motion  continues, 
the  piston  always  hurrying  to  get  away  from  the  steam  and  the  valve 
always  confronting  it  with  a  new  supply  of  steam  just  when  it  begins 
to  think  it  has  found  a  corner  where  it  may  stop  to  rest.  To  the 
piston  head  is  attached  the  piston  rod  (R  in  Figure  A).  This  passes 
through  one  end  of  the  cylinder,  the  opening  being  made  steam 
tight,  and  is  supported  at  the  end  by  guides  which  hold  it  steady  in 
its  to-and-fro  motion.  To  the  end  of  the  piston  rod  that  plays 
between  the  guides  is  fastened  a  movable  arm,  the  other  end  of  the 
arm  being  attached  to  a  crank  used  to  turn  the  machinery.  This 
movable  arm  is  the  connecting  rod  that  conveys  the  to-and-fro  motion 
of  the  piston  rod  to  the  crank  which  converts  it  into  circular  motion 
for  the  use  of  machinery. 

LIMITATIONS  OF  THE  STEAM  ENGINE. 

The  engine  is  a  machine  which  takes  the  steam  brought  to  it, 
converts  a  portion  of  the  heat  it  contains  into  useful  work,  and 


POWER.  49 

throws  the  rest  away.  We  have  seen  that  water  (H2O)  contains 
molecular  energy  ranging  from  the  point  at  which  all  life  ceases, 
or  the  absolute  zero,  461°  below  the  zero  of  the  Fahrenheit  scale, 
up  to  any  point  to  which  it  can  be  heated.  The  engine  is  wasteful, 
for  it  uses  the  steam  through  only  a  portion  of  this  range  of  tem- 
perature. 

Theoretical  Efficiency.  The  efficiency  of  the  engine  is  expressed 
by  the  formula:  T'  -T2  -5-  T'  +  461°  -  Efficiency.  This  is  not  as 
difficult  as  it  looks.  T'  means  the  temperature  of  the  steam  when 
admitted  to  the  cylinder;  T2  the  temperature  of  the  steam  when  ex- 
pelled from  the  cylinder;  T'  +461°  ,  the  temperature  of  the  steam 
above  absolute  zero,  and  this  is  found  by  adding  to  the  temperature 
of  the  steam  above  the  Fahrenheit  zero  the  461°  necessary  to  bring 
it  down  to  absolute  zero.  Using  this  formula:  suppose  the  steam 
to  be  admitted  to  the  cylinder  at  a  temperature  of  370°  F.  Suppose 
the  steam  to  be  expelled  from  the  cylinder  at  a  temperature  of  140°  F. 
The  engine  has  then  used  it  through  a  range  of  230°.  When  the 
steam  was  admitted  to  the  cylinder  it  was  370°  F.  +  461°  ===831° 
above  absolute  zero.  The  steam  then  had  831°  of  heat.  The  230° 
used  by  the  engine  divided  by  831°  equals  .277,  the  engine's  effi- 
ciency; in  other  words,  the  engine  used  a  little  more  than  one 
fourth  of  the  heat  and  threw  the  rest  away  as  a  waste  product. 

Practical  Efficiency.  It  is  plain  that  the  wider  the  range  of 
temperature  through  which  the  steam  is  used,  other  things  being 
equal,  the  higher  the  efficiency  of  the  engine.  The  foregoing  is  the 
performance  of  an  ideal  engine,  but  there  are  wastes  attendant  on  its 
practical  use,  and  the  engineer  gets  out  of  the  steam  furnished  him 
only  about  60  per  cent,  or  85  per  cent,  of  the  ideal,  or  from  15  per 
cent,  to  2 1  per  cent,  of  all  the  heat  the  steam  contained.  Let  us 
consider  the  losses.  The  very  manner  in  which  the  coal  is  consumed 
in  the  furnace  necessitates,  under  the  best  conditions,  considerable 


50  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

loss  due  to  imperfect  combustion,  escape  of  heat  up  the  chimney  to 
maintain  draft,  radiation  from  contact  of  hot  surfaces  with  the 
atmosphere.  In  good  practice  this  would  leave  about  .6  of  the 
original  heat  to  be  used  for  the  generation  of  steam. 

Engine  Waste.  Engine  wastes  are  due  to  radiation,  conduction, 
and  initial  condensation.  The  first  is  the  loss  of  heat  radiated  from 
the  cylinder,  steam  pipes,  etc.  The  second  loss  is  due  to  the  con- 
duction of  heat  from  the  cylinder  to  the  engine  frame  and  engine 
bed.  The  chief  loss  is  the  condensation  within  the  cylinder  itself. 
When  the  steam  valve  opens,  the  hot  steam  from  the  boiler  rushes 
in  and  is  brought  in  contact  with  surfaces  which  have  just  been  ex- 
posed to  a  lower  temperature,  hence  are  cooler  than  the  incoming 
steam.  These  surfaces  absorb  part  of  the  heat  from  the  steam  enter- 
ing and  the  heat  so  absorbed  cannot  be  used  to  perform  work. 

Condensation.  Reference  to  Figure  I  shows  hot  steam  is  en- 
tering at  the  end  d  and  escaping  at  end  e  into  the  open  air,  or  a  con- 
denser, at  a  much  lower  temperature.  End  e  continues  to  grow 
cooler  and  when,  as  in  Figure  4,  hot  steam  is  admitted  into  it  it  is 
so  cool  that  it  takes  a  portion  of  the  heat  from  the  entering  steam. 
The  end  d,  Figure  4,  is  now  discharging  its  steam  into  the  atmos- 
phere or  condenser  and  parting  with  some  of  the  heat  in  its  walls  to 
the  escaping  steam.  The  piston  rods  and  valve  rods,  moving  in  and 
out,  are  alternately  heated  and  cooled.  These  rob  the  steam  of  part 
of  its  heat.  If  the  surface  of  the  metal  brought  in  contact  with 
steam  is  cooled  enough  to  deposit  a  thin  film  of  moisture  it  renders 
the  escape  of  heat  from  steam  to  metal  easier,  hence  the  gain  in  ef- 
ficiency by  keeping  the  steam  and  the  cylinder  as  hot  as  possible. 
The  loss  due  to  cylinder  condensation  is  often  50  per  cent.,  rarely, 
less  than  25  per  cent.  Friction  can  never  be  wholly  done  away  with 
so  long  as  the  force  of  gravitation  exists,  so  here  is  another  loss 
ranging  from  3  per  cent,  to  20  per  cent. 


VERTICAL  BLOWING  ENGINE.     MADE  BY  THE  EDWARD  P.  ALLIS  Co. 
This  is  the  type  of  engine  used  to  furnish  the  blast  for  smelting  ores. 


POWER.  51 

How  a  Condenser  Saves.  Atmospheric  pressure  is  14.7  pounds  to 
the  square  inch.  When  an  engine  expels  its  steam  into  the  open  air 
the  piston  head  has  to  work  against  this  atmospheric  pressure.  The 
economy  of  engines  can  be  improved  in  several  ways.  An  exhaust 
pipe  may  carry  exhaust  steam  from  the  cylinder  to  a  chamber  called 
a  condenser  and  bring  it  in  contact  with  a  spray  of  cold  water,  which 
suddenly  condenses  it.  The  condensed  steam  is  then  pumped  out 
by  an  air  pump  and  returned  to  the  boilers.  About  three  pounds 
pressure  is  required  to  run  the  condenser,  and  the  difference  be- 
tween the  condenser  pressure  and  that  of  the  atmosphere  is  the  sav- 
ing to  the  engine.  Further  economies  will  be  discussed  under  the 
subject  of  compound  engines. 

Improvement  of  the  Engine.  The  best  engines  of  Watt  pro- 
duced a  horse-power-hour  on  63^  pounds  of  water  and  10  pounds 
of  coal.  The  next  generation  brought  it  down  to  40  pounds  of 
water  and  5  pounds  of  coal.  Later  the  Sickles  cut-off  and  the 
Corliss  engine  reduced  it  to  30  pounds  of  water  and  3  pounds  of 
coal.  In  1890,  15  pounds  of  water  and  i^  pounds  of  coal  were 
required.  Engines  of  steamships  are  not  the  most  economical,  yet 
those  of  the  Deutschland  have  produced  a  horse-power-hour  for  each 
i  y%  pounds  of  coal  consumed.  No  great  gains  in  bulk  of  coal  con- 
sumed or  steam  used  can  now  be  made.  Any  radical  improvement 
in  the  amount  of  work  gotten  out  of  heat  energy  must  come  from 
some  other  method  of  using  heat.  ''All  the  expenditures  of  heat 
in  the  engine  are  now  recognized,  their  magnitudes  have  been  meas- 
ured, the  loss  governing  their  variation  with  the  usual  conditions 
have  been  in  some  cases  closely,  in  other  instances  roughly,  deter- 
mined." * 

"As  the  steam  engine  now  is,  we  are  rapidly  approaching  the 
limit  of  the  possible  in  regard  to  its  efficiency,  and  naturally  further 

*A  Manual  of  the  Steam  Engine  — R.  H.  THURSTON. 


52  THE   MARVELS   OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

progress  will  be  at  a  slower  and  slower  rate.  The  greater  progress 
here  will  result  from  the  studious  effort  to  bring  the  average  up  to 
the  present  exceptional  practice.  In  rare  cases  we  have  records  of 
one  I.  H.  P.  per  pound  of  coal  per  hour.  This  is  already  attainable, 
therefore,  and  the  problem  immediately  before  us  is  to  make  such 
records  the  rule  rather  than  the  exception."  * 

Best  Records  of  Engines.  The  scientist  and  the  builder  co- 
operating have  produced  some  wonderful  machines.  The  engines  of 
the  Edison  power  plant  in  Duane  street,  New  York,  are  said  to  have 
produced  a  horse-power-hour  on  a  pound  of  coal.  An  Allis  engine 
at  Chestnut  Hill  station  of  the  Boston  Waterworks  has  produced  a 
horse-power-hour  on  1.062  pounds  of  Loyalhanna  coal.  The  editor 
of  the  Engineering  News  states  that  these  figures  can  be  reduced  to 
one  pound  per  horse-power-hour  simply  by  substituting  Virginia 
Pocahontas  coal,  and  suggests  other  changes  by  which  he  declares  it 
might  be  reduced  to  9-10  pound  per  horse-power-hour,  f 

The  Limit  Nearly  Reached.  When  we  recall  that  the  early 
Corliss  engine  required  three  pounds  of  coal  for  a  horse-power-hour 
we  see  how  little  room  there  is  for  improvement.  Under  the  article 
"Coal"  will  be  found  a  statement  showing  man's  obligation  to  the 
machines  that  have  enfranchised  him.  So  great  has  been  the  devel- 
opment that  one  man  with  a  machine  is  now  able  to  produce  as 
much  as  one  hundred  and  twenty  men  one  hundred  years  ago. 
The  commerce  of  the  world  has,  within  a  century,  increased  more 
than  1 200  per  cent.,  while  its  population  has  only  rather  more  than 
doubled.  The  steam  engine  has  made  possible  to  every  man  within 
the  bounds  of  civilization  more  of  the  world's  material  wealth  in  re- 
turn for  his  labor. 


*  Marine  Engineering,  September,  1900. 
t  Engineering  News,  September  27,  1900. 


POWER.  53 

COMPOUND  STATIONARY  ENGINE. 

In  a  single  cylinder  engine  the  power  is  not  exerted  continu- 
ously, for  the  piston  moves  forward,  stops,  and  retraces  its  path. 
This  jar  or  vibration  was  rendered  very  noticeable  when  such  en- 
gines were  first  used  in  connection  with  electric  lighting,  the  vibra- 
tion causing  variation  in  the  intensity  of  the  light.  To  get  rid  of 
this  vibration,  but  more  for  the  purpose  of  reducing  the  loss  of 
power  due  to  condensation  in  the  cylinder,  the  compound  engine 
was  introduced.  By  this  term  is  meant  using  the  steam  in  one 
cylinder,  passing  it  to  another,  and  using  it  again. 

Meaning  of  Triple  Expansion.  The  terms  triple  and  quadruple 
expansion  engines  mean  that  the  steam  is  used  three  or  four  times 
consecutively  and  has  no  reference  to  the  number  of  cylinders,  for  a 
triple  expansion  engine  may  have  more  than  three  cylinders  and  a 
quadruple  expansion  engine  may  have  more  than  four.  If  it  were 
not  for  the  loss  due  to  cylinder  condensation  there  would  be  little  to 
be  gained  by  using  the  steam  in  several  cylinders,  but  this  loss  in  a 
single  cylinder  engine  frequently  amounts  to  one  half,  and  so  leaves 
a  great  margin  for  improvement.  It  may  be  stated  broadly  that  the 
loss  in  the  different  types  of  engines  where  the  cylinders  are  not  pro- 
tected by  jackets,  etc.,  is  about  as  follows:  In  the  simple  engine  50 
per  cent.,  in  the  compound  engine  25  per  cent.,  in  the  triple  expan- 
sion 20  per  cent.,  and  the  quadruple  expansion  15  per  cent.  This 
waste  can  be  reduced  markedly  by  a  good  system  of  jacketing. 

How  Multiple  Expansion  Saves.  Within  the  cylinder  only  a 
small  "  skin"  on  the  inside  undergoes  alternate  heating  and  cooling, 
for  the  rapidity  of  the  piston  stroke  does  not  give  time  for  more,  and 
the  heated  mass  of  metal  tends  to  keep  up.  an  average.  By  making 
the  range  of  temperature  within  the  cylinder  small,  condensation  can 
be  partly  avoided  and  this  is  done  by  dividing  the  expansion  of  the 
steam  into  two,  three,  or  four  parts,  so  making  the  variation  in  tern- 


54 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


perature  in  each  cylinder  only  one  half,  one  third,  or  one  fourth  as 
great  as  it  would  be  in  a  single  cylinder.  The  steam  from  the  boiler 
enters  the  smallest  cylinder  of  the  set,  is  exhausted  into  a  larger  one, 
from  there  into  another  yet  larger.  So  much  room  may  be  neces- 
sary for  the  third  expansion  that  it  cannot  economically  be  contained 

in  one  cylinder  and  so  may  be  di- 
vided between  two.  This  is  why 
a  triple  expansion  engine  may 
have  three  or  more  cylinders,  or 
a  quadruple  have  five,  six,  or 
seven. 

Green's  Fuel  Economizer.  In 
general  practice  simple  compound 
engines  are  worked  at  about  100 
pounds  boiler  pressure  ;  triple  ex- 
pansion, 125  to  1 80;  quadruple, 
200  to  250.  So  much  attention 
is  not  being  paid  to  the  condenser 
as  formerly,  for  better  methods  in 
boiler  making  and  the  use  of  steel 
in  place  of  iron  have  produced 
boilers  that  will  stand  more  pres- 
sure with  safety,  and  have  made 
GREEN'S  FUEL  ECONOMIZER. 

As  the  smoke  and  gases  pass  over  the  tubes  of  the     it  just  as    cheap  and  easy  to   add   a 
Green  Economizer  they  deposit  soot  on  them  and  thus 

render  them  less  efficient.  This  cut  shows  the  device  few  CXtra  pounds  to  the  boiler 
which  automatically  cleans  the  tubes  and  keeps  them 

working  at  their  maximum  efficiency.  pressure  as  to  take  away  as  many 

pounds  pressure  at  the  condenser.  Modern  methods  use  the  hot 
gases  from  the  chimney  and  the  exhaust  steam  to  heat  the  water 
going  into  the  boiler  from  which  steam  is  to  be  made  and  save  part 
of  what  was  formerly  wasted.  If  cold  water  is  pumped  into  the 
boiler  to  be  made  into  steam,  a  good  deal  of  work  must  be  done  on 


POWER. 


55 


it  to  raise  it  to  the  boiling  point.  If  the  water  is  first  heated  by 
the  exhaust  steam  and  the  gases  escaping  from  the  chimney,  it  enters 
the  boiler  carrying  some  of  the  heat  that  would  otherwise  be  thrown 
away  and  so  does  not  need  so  much  work  to  bring  it  to  the  point 
where  it  will  generate  steam.  Green's  Fuel  Economizer  is  a  clever 
piece  of  mechanism  designed  for  this  purpose.  It  consists  of  a  series 


THE  GREEN  FUEL  ECONOMIZER. 

This  cut  shows  how  the  Economizer  is  placed  between  the  furnace  and  the  chimney,  using  the  heat  in  the 
gases  that  would  otherwise  be  wasted,  and  heating  the  feed  water  up  to  such  a  point  that  all  the  boiler  has  to  do 
is  to  turn  it  into  steam  at  the  same  temperature.  It  is  a  clear  saving  of  all  the  heat  that  was  formerly  wasted,  and 
the  turning  of  it  to  a  useful  purpose. 

of  tubes  arranged  vertically  in  the  flue  through  which  the  gases  from 
the  furnace  of  the  boiler  escape  to  the  chimney.  The  feed  water  is 
pumped  through  the  Economizer  into  the  boiler  and  on  its  passage 
heated  by  the  escaping  gas.  Where  these  gases  have  a  high  tem- 
perature, from  450°  to  560  ,  considerable  heat  that  would  otherwise 
be  wasted  can  be  utilized.  The  following  claims  are  urged  for  the 
Economizer:  — 

1.  The  saving  of  fuel  varies  from   10  per  cent,  to  20  per  cent, 
according  to  conditions. 

2.  The  feed  water  is  economically  heated  to  a  temperature  above 
that  attained  by  any  other  means. 


56  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

3.  It  holds  a  great  volume  of  water  in  reserve   heated  to  the 
point  of  evaporation  and  ready  to  be  delivered   immediately  to  the 
boilers.     This  is  an  advantage  in  plants  which  run  with  loads  subject 
to  sudden  variations. 

4.  It   utilizes   the   heat   from   the   escaping  gases  which  would 
otherwise  go  to  waste. 

5.  It   avoids  bringing  cold  water    in  sudden  contact   with  the 
heated  boiler  flues  and  so  prolongs  the  life  of  the  boiler. 

6.  The  slow  current  in  the   Economizer  allows   the  sediment  in 
the  water  to  be  deposited  before  it  reaches  the  boiler.      Sediment  in 
boiler  flues  hinders  the  passage  of  heat  from  the  furnace  to  the  water 
within  the  flue.     The  sediment  can   be  more  easily  "blown  out"  of 
the  Economizer  than  out  of  the  boiler  flues. 

Mr.  Edward  Green  brought  out  the  Economizer  in  1845. 

Superheated  Steam.  No  matter  how  much  heat  is  applied  to 
water  containing  ice,  the  temperature  of  the  whole  mass  cannot  be 
raised  above  the  melting  point  until  all  the  ice  is  melted,  so,  steam 
heated  in  the  presence  of  water  cannot  be  raised  above  a  certain  tem- 
perature, for  all  the  heat  applied  is  taken  up  by  the  water  and  simply 
converted  into  more  steam.  There  are  two  kinds  of  steam,  the  wet 
steam  made  in  the  presence  of  water,  and  dry  steam  which  has  been 
removed  from  the  water  and  raised  to  a  higher  temperature.  It  is 
then  known  as  superheated  steam.  The  temperature  to  which  it 
may  be  raised  is  limited  only  by  the  ability  of  the  furnaces  and  the 
strength  of  the  vessels  containing  it.  But  superheated  steam  is 
sometimes  treacherous  and  violently  explosive.  It  seems  to  be  true 
that  a  thin  film  of  moisture  on  the  "  interior  of  pipes  and  cylinders 
renders  the  exchange  of  heat  between  the  metal  and  the  steam  much 
easier  and  decreases  the  efficiency  of  the  engine.  Steam  is  super- 
heated so  that  when  brought  in  contact  with  the  surfaces  of  the 
pipes  and  cylinders  it  will  not  be  cooled  down  to  the  point  of  con- 


POWER.  57 

densation.  It  may  be  said  in  general  that  in  large  plants  the  process 
of  superheating  steam  is  economical  for  it  helps  prevent,  as  we  have 
seen,  loss  by  condensation  and  makes  the  steam  available  through  a 
wider  range  of  temperature.  However,  superheated  steam  increases 
the  corrosion  of  the  piston  and  cylinder. 

The  averages  of  the  efficiencies  of  "several  typical  plants  are  about 
as  follows.  These  engines  were  all  worked  with  condensers:  — 

Pounds  per  horse-power. 

Steam.         Fuel. 

Simple  single  cylinder,  25  2.8 

Compound,  18  2 

Triple  expansion,  14  1.5 

Quadruple  expansion,  12  1.25 

Where  fuel  is  cheap  the  simpler  forms  of  engines  may  be  the 
more  economical.  The  same  statement  holds  good  in  those  plants 
which  run  only  a  small  part  of  the  time.  But  with  coal  at  $5.00  a 
ton,  some  form  of  compound  engine  gives  the  best  service.  At  sea, 
where  every  pound  of  coal  displaces  a  pound  of  paying  freight  and 
every  ton  a  passenger,  where  coal  must  be  used  to  transport  coal, 
where  a  lighter  and  smaller  boiler  plant  is  a  decided  advantage,  the 
multiple  cylinder  is  evidently  the  best. 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  STEAM  ENGINE. 

Alexandria,  a  city  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nile,  founded  332  B.  C. 
by  Alexander  the  Great,  after  whom  it  was  named,  was  destined  to 
become  for  centuries  a  famous  seat  of  learning.  Here  flourished 
Hero,  a  Greek  philosopher  and  mechanician  (born  285,  died  222  B. 
C.),  who  seems  to  have  brought  out  the  prototype  of  the  steam 
engine  which  has  revolutionized  the  industrial  forces  of  the  world. 
Hero's  engine,  ^olipyle,  was  a  hollow  metallic  sphere  supported  be- 
tween two  trunnions  through  which  steam  from  the  boiler  passed  to 
the  interior  of  the  sphere.  At  right  angles  to  the  trunnions  two 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


HERO'S  ENGINE, 
250  B.C. 


bent  arms  issued  from  the  sphere  and  through  these  the  steam  was 
discharged  into  the  atmosphere,  which,  reacting  upon  it,  caused  the 
sphere  to  revolve.  Something  similar  is  seen 
in  the  revolving  lawn  sprinklers  of  to-day. 
Hero  was  an  able  writer,  and  in  his  "  Spiritalia 
sue  Pneumatica"  has  described  for  us  many 
clever  mechanical  devices  used  in  the  temples 
of  the  Egyptian  gods  to  inspire  awe  and  incite 
belief  among  their  credulous  worshipers.  His 
work  is  interesting  because  it  shows  that  some 
knowledge  of  the  expansive  force  of  steam  had 
even  then  been  possessed  for  a  long  time. 

Another  steam  or  vapor  engine  of  no  little 
interest  is  the  Vocal  Memnon.  This  is  well 
described  by  a  famous  Egyptologist.  "  When  the  secrets  of  a  waning 
faith  were  revealed  by  the  votaries  of  a  rival  belief,  the  celestial  har- 
mony was  then  said  to  be  produced  by  vapor,  rising  from  water  con- 
cealed in  a  cavity  in  the  statue,  being  made  to  pass  through  a  tube 
having  a  small  orifice  fashioned  in  a  manner  similar  to  that  of  an 
organ.  As  long  as  the  fluid  was  heated  by  the  rays  of  the  sun,  mys- 
terious sounds  were  heard  by  the  assembled  worshipers,  which  died 
gradually  away,  as  the  solar  influence  was  withdrawn  from  the  gigan- 
tic idol."  It  was  not  until  the  gloom  of  the  Dark  Ages  had  lifted 
that  any  practical  progress  was  made  in  the  application  of  steam  as  a 
motive  power. 

Baptista  Porta,  in  1606,  described  and  illustrated  a  plan  for  the 
first  steam  pumping  engine.  It  consisted  of  a  furnace,  a  boiler,  and 
a  box  partly  full  of  water.  A  pipe  from  the  boiler  connected  with 
the  box  above  the  water  line.  Another  pipe  with  one  end  beneath 
the  water  leads  out  of  the  box.  The  box,  being  filled  with  water, 
was  tightly  closed  and  a  fire  built  under  the  boiler,  the  steam  from 


POWER.  59 

which  passed  to  the  box.  As  the  steam  pressure  bore  down  upon 
the  water  the  latter  was  forced  out  through  the  delivery  pipe  to  a 
height  varying  with  the  boiler  pressure.  When  the  box  had  been  emp- 
tied, steam  was  shut  off,  the  box  refilled,  and  the  operation  repeated. 
The  plan  was  too  cumbersome  to  be  economical,  but  it  was  the  fore- 
runner of  Savery's  engine.  In  1615  De  Caus  improved  upon  Porta's 
engine  by  doing  away  with  the  water  box,  and  connecting  the  pipe 
directly  with  the  boiler.  By  this  means  he  delivered  hot  water  at 
the  point  desired,  thus  achieving  his  object.  The  "  creative  imagina- 
tion "  of  many  countries  was  soon  working  upon  the  problem,  but  it 
was  in  England  that  the  greatest  strides  were  made,  and  that  country 
may  be  justly  called  the  birthplace  of  the  effective  steam  engine. 

It  is  amusing  to  note  that  the  story  of  "  Watt  and  his  teakettle" 
is  anticipated  one  hundred  years  in  the  career  of  the  Marquis  of 
Worcester.  A  partisan  of  Charles  II.,  he  was  captured  and  impris- 
oned by  the  Cromwell  party  in  the  Tower  of  London.  While  cook- 
ing his  dinner  in  an  iron  pot  he  is  said  to  have  watched  the  rise  and 
fall  of  the  iron  lid  as  the  steam  gathered  and  escaped.  After  the 
Restoration  he  actually  completed  a  rude  machine  capable  of.  raising 
a  column  of  water  40  feet. 

Origin  of  the  Safety  Valve  and  Piston.  Denis  Papin  (see  Steam- 
boat) for  a  time  resided  in  England,  where  he  perfected  his  "  Di- 
gester," a  process  of  extracting  the  gelatin  from  bones  by  dissolving 
them  in  steam  at  a  high  pressure.  Warned  by  an  explosion  or  two, 
he  devised  the  safety  valve.  This  was  a  tapering  opening  into  a 
boiler  and  made  steam-tight  by  fitting  into  it  a  conical  plug.  The 
plug  was  held  in  place  by  weights  so  graduated  that  when  the  pres- 
sure within  the  boiler  had  nearly  reached  the  limit  of  safety  it  would 
raise  the  plug  and  allow  the  steam  to  escape.  This  with  some 
refinements  of  mechanism  is  the  safety  valve  of  to-day.  Papin  is 
credited  with  the  first  application  of  the  piston  to  the  steam  engine. 


60  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

He  designed  a  long  upright  cylinder  fitted  with  a  piston  rod  passing 
out  through  the  top.  A  small  amount  of  water  was  admitted  to  the 
cylinder  and  a  fire  built  underneath  the  bottom.  The  steam,  ex- 
panding, forced  the  piston  to  the  top  together  with  any  weight  that 
might  be  attached  to  it.  To  return  it  to  its  original  position  the  fire 
was  withdrawn  from  beneath  the  cylinder,  and  as  it  cooled  the  steam 
within  condensed  and  the  atmospheric  pressure  forced  the  piston 
back  to  its  original  position.  Crude,  slow,  and  unserviceable  as  was 
Papin's  device  it  was  the  ancestor  of  the  piston  that  in  our  modern 
high  power  engines  moves  with  almost  lightning-like  rapidity. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  piston  was  a  disappointment  to  Papin 
and  he  desisted  when  on  the  very  threshold  of  a  great  discovery. 

First  Use  of  Steam  Engine.  The  drainage  of  mines  was  a  seri- 
ous problem  in  England,  and  the  first  practical  working  steam  engine 
was  applied  to  this  purpose.  To  "Thomas  Savery,  Gentleman,"  a 
Cornish  mine  captain,  was  issued  in  1698  a  patent  "for  raising  water 
and  occasioning  motion  to  all  sorts  of  mill  work  by  the  impellent 
force  of  fire."  In  1699  he  exhibited  his  model  before  the  Royal  So- 
ciety, where  it  was  favorably  received. 

His  pumping  engine  was  placed  near  the  bottom  of  the  mine  to 
be  drained,  and  a  fire  built  under  the  boiler,  from  which  steam  was 
conveyed  to 'a  long  oval-shaped  copper  cylinder.  The  bottom  of 
the  cylinder  connected  with  two  pipes,  one  a  suction  pipe  that  led  to 
the  water  below,  the  other  a  discharge  pipe  through  which  the  water 
was  forced  out  of  the  mine.  Steam  from  the  boiler  was  admitted  to 
the  cylinder  and  the  valves  closed.  The  cylinder  was  next  sprayed 
with  cold  water.  The  steam  within  condensed,  a  vacuum  was 
formed,  and  the  water  from  the  mine  rushed  through  the  suction 
pipe  into  the  cylinder.  The  valve  in  the  suction  pipe  was  then 
closed  and  the  one  between  the  cylinder  and  the  boiler  opened, 
steam  from  the  boiler  entered  the  cylinder  and  forced  the  water  out 


POWER.  6l 

of  the  cylinder  through  the  delivery  pipe.  Savery  constructed  his 
pumping  engine  in  duplicate  and  had  a  small  boiler  in  which  he 
heated  the  water  supplied  to  the  large  one,  thus  reducing  "conden- 
sation "  in  the  large  boiler.  If  heat  is  applied  to  a  boiler  after  all 
the  water  within  it  has  been  turned  into  steam,  the  steam  becomes 
superheated  and  explosive.  That  he  might  know  how  much  steam 
and  water  he  had  within  his  boiler  Savery  fitted  to  it  two  stopcocks ; 
one  above  the  desired  water  level,  the  other  below.  If  on  opening 
the  upper  one  water  came  out,  that  indicated  too  much  water  in  the 
boiler,  and  the  supply  to  the  boiler  was  shut  off.  If  on  opening  the 
lower  one  steam  came  out,  that  showed  that  the  water  was  too  low, 
and  a  fresh  supply  was  admitted.  These,  with  some  improvements, 
constitute  the  gauge  cocks  now  used. 

Savery's  engine  used  what  was  a  comparatively  high  pressure  for 
the  rude  boilers  of  that  time  and  explosions  were  not  unknown. 
Although  Papin  had  invented  the  safety  valve  several  years  before, 
it  was  not  until  after  Savery's  death  that  it  was  applied  to  steam 
engines.  The  Savery  engine  was  necessarily  wasteful,  for  the  steam 
from  the  boiler  was  partly  condensed  when  brought  in  direct  com- 
munication with  the  cold  water  in  the  cylinder.  The  vacuum  created 
would  lift  the  water  only  about  20  or  22  feet  and  the  engine  com- 
plete under  the  best  circumstances  had  an  effective  pumping  range 
of  about  90  feet.  To  get  the  water  out  of  a  deep  mine  a  series  of 
engines,  one  above  another,  were  built  at  different  levels,  each  re- 
quiring some  one  to  operate  it. 

Newcomen's  Engine.  Thomas  Newcomen  (1650? -1729)  of 
Devonshire,  England,  was  the  maker  of  the  first  real  steam  engine. 
With  the  exception  of  Papin's  experiment,  the  engines  of  Savery, 
the  Marquis  of  Worcester,  etc.,  were  but  modifications  of  Hero's 
engine  ^Eolipyle.  One  vessel  in  the  earliest  engines  served  as  boiler, 
engine,  pump,  and  condenser,  and  did  none  of  its  duties  well.  New- 


62  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

comen  improved  upon  Papin's  piston.  He  constructed  a  large  up- 
right cylinder,  fitted  it  with  a  piston,  passed  the  piston  rod  out 
through  a  cover  in  the  top,  and  attached  it  to  one  end  of  a  balance 
beam  (walking  beam),  the  other  end  of  which  operated  a  pump  down 
in  the  mine.  The  pump  being  heavier  than  the  piston,  drew  the 
latter  to  the  top  of  the  cylinder.  When  the  piston  was  at  the  high- 
est point,  steam  was  admitted  into  the  cylinder  at  the  bottom,  then 
all  the  valves  were  closed  and  the  cylinder  sprayed  with  cold  water. 
This  reduced  its  temperature  and  condensed  the  steam  inside  it, 
forming  a  vacuum  within.  Twelve  cubic  feet  of  the  atmosphere 
weigh  one  pound.  Its  pressure  on  each  square  inch  of  surface 
averages  14.7  pounds.  When  the  vacuum  was  created  in  New- 
comen's  cylinder  the  atmospheric  pressure  forced  the  piston  to  the 
bottom  of  the  cylinder.  This  raised  the  other  end  of  the  walking 
beam  and  operated  the  pump.  When  the  valve  leading  to  the  boiler 
was  opened  the  vacuum  was  destroyed  and  the  piston  rose  to  the 
upper  part  of  the  cylinder.  The  operation  was  then  repeated.  To 
make  his  piston  air-tight  Newcomen  covered  the  top  of  it  with 
water. 

Improvement  from  an  Accident.  The  next  marked  improve- 
ments were  due  to  an  accident  and  a  lazy  boy.  One  day,  greatly  to 
Newcomen's  surprise,  his  steam  engine  made  several  rapid  strokes  in 
quick  succession  without  any  reference  to  the  action  of  the  valves.  On 
taking  his  machine  apart  to  find  out  the  difficulty,  he  saw  that  a  lit- 
tle water  had  trickled  through  from  the  top  and  being  brought  in  con- 
tact with  the  steam  condensed  it  instantly.  He  was  quick  to  perceive 
the  significance,  and  instead  of  applying  water  to  the  outside  of  his 
cylinder  turned  a  tiny  jet  inside  and  increased  markedly  the  efficiency 
of  his  engine.  It  was  now  able  to  make  six  or  eight  strokes  a  min- 
ute but  required  an  attendant  who  must  open  and  close  at  the  right 
moment  the  valves  controlling  the  steam  and  the  condensing  jet. 


POWER.  63 

Boys  were  employed  for  the  work.  One  of  them,  Humphrey  Potter, 
liked  to  play  marbles  and  found  the  task  of  opening  and  closing 
those  valves  six  or  eight  times  a  minute  a  most  irksome  one.  Set- 
ting his  wits  and  his  eyes  at  work  he  observed  that  the  valves  were 
opened  or  closed  every  time  the  walking  beam  was  in  a  certain  posi- 
tion. He  devised  a  system  of  strings  and  bits  of  wood  which  he 
stealthily  attached  to  the  engine.  When  watched  he  would  open 
and  close  the  valves  by  hand.  When  left  alone  he  would  apply  his 
"  scroggan  "  and  play  truant.  One  day  calamity  in  the  person  of 
Newcomen  overtook  him,  but  the  engineer  was  quick  to  perceive  the 
significance  of  the  boy's  crude  snarl  of  string,  for  when  worked  out 
by  the  hand  of  the  master  it  made  the  engine  fully  automatic  and 
raised  the  speed  of  its  stroke  from  six  or  eight  per  minute  to  fifteen 
or  sixteen.  Newcomen  was  an  able  engineer,  not  only  fertile  in 
invention  but.  quick  to  see  and  appreciate  the  efforts  of  others,  and 
could  perfect  and  apply  to  his  own  machine  ideas  that  in  other 
hands  were  crude  and  inefficient.  His  engine  with  minor  improve- 
ments prevailed  until  the  time  of  Watt.  "  The  modern  condensing 
pumping  engine,  however,  is  a  Newcomen  engine  rather  than  a  Watt 
engine,  and  Newcomen  rather  than  Watt  is  the  inventor  of  the 

o 

steam  engine."* 

James  Watt  was  born  at  Greenock,  Scotland,  January  19,  1736, 
and  died  August  25,  1819.  The  story  of  his  experiments  of  the  tea- 
kettle illustrates  well  the  myths  that  attach  themselves  to  the  mem- 
ory of  all  great  men.  As  a  boy  he  was  of  delicate  constitution.  He 
went  to  London  when  eighteen  and  apprenticed  himself  to  an  instru- 
ment-maker. When  twenty-one,  he  went  to  Glasgow  to  enter  busi- 
ness for  himself,  but  trouble  at  once  arose  over  trade  regulations,  for 
he  was  not  a  freeman  or  burgess  of  the  town,  and  this  threatened  to 
put  a  stop  to  his  business.  Within  the  college  walls  such  trade 

*R.  H.  THURSTON. 


64 


MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


regulations  were  not  operative  and  the  college  authorities  gave  him  a 
small  room  where  he  took  up  the  trade  of  instrument  maker  to  the 

college.  He  was  of  a  philosophical 
turn  of  mind  and  his  skill  soon  made 
him  a  favorite  with  the  instructors 
of  the  college,  and  rendered  the  me- 
chanical knowledge  of  the  age  ac- 
cessible to  him.  There  is  evidence 
to  show  that  he  early  began  experi- 
ments with  Papin's  crude  engine. 
Papin  was  a  man  eminent  in  the 
scientific  circle  of  his  age.  Honor- 
ary titles  had  been  conferred  upon 
him  by  English  educational  institu- 
tions. In  his  experimental  boat  on 
the  River  Fulda  he  is  said  to  have 
employed  two  cylinders  with  differ- 
ent timed  strokes,  so  as  to  give  a  continuous  exertion  of  power. 
Papin's  descriptions  of  his  experiments  were  published  and  preserved 
in  the  libraries  of  all  the  great  institutions  of  learning.  There  is  no 
reason  why  Watt  may  not  have  known  of  them.  We  are  told  that 
as  early  as  1760  Watt  had  improved  upon  Papin's  cylinder  by  adding 
a  valve  to  the  bottom  of  it  through  which  the  steam  might  escape  t 
after  the  piston  had  been  raised  to  its  highest  point  and  thus  do 
away  with  the  necessity  of  a  vacuum. 

Watt's  Important  Discovery.  A  model  of  a  Newcomen  engine, 
placed  in  Watt's  hands  for  repair  in  1763,  interested  him  still 
further  in  the  subject.  After  repairing  it  he  made  experiments  with 
it  and  remarked  his  surprise  at  the  great  amount  of  steam  required  to 
operate  it.  He  conducted  a  long  series  of  experiments  until,  -medi- 
tating upon  some  means  of  reducing  the  waste,  the  idea  of  a  separate 


JAMES  WATT. 


POWER.  65 

condenser  is  said  to  have  burst  upon  him  suddenly  one  Sunday.  He 
placed  near  the  cylinder  a  large  chamber  in  which  was  a  jet  of  water 
and  turned  the  steam  from  the  cylinder  into  it.  The  condensation 
produced  a  vacuum  in  the  chamber,  and  the  steam  at  each  stroke 
rushed  into  the  chamber,  only  to  be  condensed  by  the  jet,  and  thus 
furnish  the  necessary  vacuum  for  the  next  stroke.  The  water  was 
removed  by  a  pump  driven  by  the  walking  beam  of  the  engine. 
This,  the  first  of  Watt's  brilliant  series  of  inventions,  made  a  useful 
machine  from  what  had  been  of  only  doubtful  economic  value  before. 
Still  he  was  using  the  steam  only  to  produce  a  vacuum  and  the  pis- 
ton was  exposed  at  the  top  that  the  air  might  force  it  down.  To 
keep  his  cylinder  from  cooling  he  put  a  jacket  upon  it.  That  the 
upper  side  of  the  piston  might  not  radiate  its  heat  too  freely,  he 
closed  that  end  of  the  cylinder  and  passed  the  piston  rod  out  through 
an  opening.  This  naturally  suggested  the  next  step.  If  the  steam 
could  force  the  piston  up,  why  could  it  not  force  it  down  ?  He 
packed  the  piston  rod  with  hemp,  wax,  oil,  and  grease,  admitted  the 
steam  to  top  and  bottom  of  the  piston  alternately,  and  the  first  in- 
dependent steam  engine  was  born.  It  is  well  that  he  retained  the 
condenser,  for  with  the  imperfect  boilers  then  in  use  had  an  engine 
worked  entirely  above  atmospheric  pressure,  the  mortality  attendant 
upon  the  operation  would  have  put  a  serious  damper  on  its  general 
use. 

Rapid  Development  of  the  Engine.  Watt  began  a  large  model 
but,  meeting  with  an  accident  and  having  but  limited  means,  he  was 
forced  to  give  it  up.  He  outgrew  his  trade  of  instrument  maker  and 
became  a  surveyor  and  consulting  engineer.  This  brought  him  the 
acquaintance  of  Dr.  Roebuck,  a  famous  chemist  and  man  of  wealth, 
who  advanced  money  sufficient  to  secure  a  patent  and  received 
therefor  a  two  thirds  interest.  Financial  trouble  overtaking  Dr. 
Roebuck,  his  interest  in  Watt's  patent  was  sold  to  Matthew  Boulton, 


66  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

an  inventor  remarkable  for  his  energy  and  enterprise  as  a  manufac- 
turer. Watt  could  not  have  had  a  better  partner.  After  the  in- 
ventors had  spent  a  fortune  on  their  engine  they  were  able  to  offer 
it  to  the  public  in  these  words:  "All  that  we  ask  from  those  who 
choose  to  have  our  engines  is  the  value  of  one  third  part  of  the  coals 
which  are  saved  by  using  our  improved  machines  instead  of  the  old. 
With  our  engine  it  will  not,  in  fact,  cost  you  but  a  trifle  more  than 
half  the  money  you  now  pay  to  do  the  same  work,  even  with  one 
third  part  included ;  besides  an  immense  saving  of  room,  water,  and 
expense  of  repairs."  With  the  adoption  of  their  engine  fortune 
poured  in  upon  them. 

Invention  of  the  Crank  and  Valve  Gear.  Watt  and  Boulton 
now  brought  out  in  succession  various  improvements  such  as  the 
"  governor,"  which  regulates  the  supply  of  steam  to  the  engine  ac- 
cording to  its  needs.  In  all  other  engines  steam  had  been  applied 
from  the  boiler  during  the  whole  stroke  of  the  piston.  The  jar 
resulting  at  the  end  of  the  stroke  was  a  difficult  problem  to  over- 
come. Watt  cut  off  the  steam  before  his  piston  had  completed  its 
stroke,  and  as  it  slowed  down  admitted  steam  on  the  other  side  of 
the  piston  to  form  a  cushion.  Although  he  had  stumbled  upon  the 
discovery  of  the  expansive  force  of  steam,  he  died  in  ignorance  of  it. 
He  invented  the  indicator,  an  instrument  that  gives  a  tracing  show- 
ing the  exact  pressure  within  the  cylinder  at  every  point  of  the 
stroke.  This  suggested  other  improvements.  The  engine  was  as 
yet  a  pumping  machine  having  only  the  up-and-down  motion  of  pis- 
ton and  walking  beam.  Watt's  friends  claim  that  he  gave  a  plan  for 
a  pattern  of  a  crank  and  connecting  rod  to  a  workman  named  Cart- 
wright  to  make  for  him.  Cartwright  is  said  to  have  sold  it  to  a  man 
named  John  Steed,  who  secured  a  patent  in  17/9.  It  is  significant 
that  the  steam  engine,  which  we  seem  to  think  has  existed  for  ages, 
was  so  crude  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  ago  that  it  could  not 


POWER.  67 

convert  its  power  into  circular  motion  for  the'  use  of  machinery.  He 
was  not  successful  in  his  suits  with  Steed  over  the  application  of  the 
crank  and  was  forced  to  substitute  a  small  cogwheel  engaging  a 
larger  one  to  secure  circular  motion.  However,  the  engine  was 
made  available  for  all  machinery.  Hornblower  brought  forth  a  com- 
pound engine  in  1790  but  Watt  sued  him  for  infringement  and  won 
his  case.  The  steam  engine  as  it  left  the  hands  of  Watt  was  essen- 
tially complete,  and  the  era  of  fundamental  invention  had  closed. 

Corliss's  Improvement.  Various  improvements  in  valve  gear 
were  made  or  foreshadowed  until  Corliss  in  1849  produced  an  engine 
of  new  design  and  construction  in  which  were  embodied  the  best 
ideas  of  the  previous  half  century.  The  Corliss  engine  is  to-day  the 
best  type  of  the  single  cylinder  slow-acting  engine.  Corliss  left  the 
engine  complete  in  all  its  essential  characteristics.  Since  his  time 
progress  has  consisted  in  the  refinement  of  the  mechanism,  the  im- 
provement of  the  materials,  and  the  adaptation  of  the  engine  to  the 
duty  which  it  is  called  upon  to  perform.  It  has  gradually  been  given 
certain  special  and  typical  forms.  Every  railroad  has  at  least  three 
kinds  of  locomotives;  one  to  climb  steep  grades  and  draw  heavy 
loads,  another  to  dash  across  the  country  with  its  passenger 
coaches  often,  for  short  distances,  at  the  rate  of  sixty,  seventy, 
eighty,  or  even  ninety  miles  an  hour;  a  third,  neither  so  strong 
nor  so  swift,  for  mixed  traffic.  Another  type  of  engine,  slow  and 
ponderous,  may  help  drive  the  oil  production  of  a  country  half  way 
across  a  continent. 

Man's  Most  Faithful  Servant.  The  steam  engine  is  the  most 
faithful  servant  of  man.  Modern  civilization  could  not  be  supported 
without  it.  For  man's  benefit  it  brings  materials  from  the  lowest 
levels  of  the  mine  and  from  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  It 
turns  the  dynamo  to  light  his  cities,  to  propel  his  street  cars,  and  to 
run  his  passenger  elevators.  It  furnishes  the  power  to  make  the  finest 


68  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

cambric  needle,  the  microscopic  parts  of  a  watch,  and  to  forge  the 
gigantic  anchor  of  an  ocean  liner.  It  spins  for  him  lace,  rivaling  the 
cobweb  in  its  delicacy,  and  bends  the  armor  plate  of  a  battleship. 
It  plows  his  fields,  grinds  his  grain,  carries  his  products  to  market, 
and  makes  his  clothing.  For  him  it  has  annihilated  distance.  It 
has  made  it  possible  for  the  wheat  grower  of  Manitoba  or  the  cotton 
planter  of  Louisiana  to  exchange  his  crop  for  the  carpets  of  Brussels 
or  the  cutlery  of  Sheffield.  It  has  enabled  the  operatives  of  those 
cities  to  obtain  materials  for  their  food  from  one  and  for  their  cloth- 
ing from  the  other.  It  has  made  ships  independent  of  wind  or  tide, 
and  eradicated  the  worst  horrors  of  a  stormy  voyage.  In  other 
times  storms  might  force  sailing  vessels  to  beat  about  for  days  with 
hatches  battened  down,  rendering  the  atmosphere  inside  stifling  be- 
yond description.  At  such  times  the  aged,  the  infirm,  or  the  feeble 
frequently  succumbed,  and  if  smallpox  or  the  deadly  ship  fever  were 
aboard  the  vessel  was  frequently  converted  into  a  floating  pesthouse. 

The  March  of  Steam  Power.  In  1840  steam  was  in  its  infancy 
and  constituted  only  5  per  cent,  of  the  working  power  of  Christen- 
dom. At  that  time  about  34  per  cent,  of  the  workers  of  England 
were  engaged  in  manufactures.  Fifty  years  later  steam  had  increased 
more  than  3000  per  cent.  The  ratio  of  the  workers  engaged  in 
manufacture  had  risen  to  54  per  cent.,  and  articles  were  produced 
for  one  fourth  of  the  cost  of  half  a  century  before  and  more  than  two 
and  a  half  times  the  weight  of  clothing  per  capita  was  produced. 
The  world  is  better  clothed,  better  housed,  better  fed  than  ever 
before.  To-day  the  sociologist  who  does  not  take  into  account  the 
steam  engine  as  a  factor  in  his  studies  has  an  inadequate  grasp  upon 
his  subject. 

Athena,  the  Greek  goddess,  who  presided  over  inventions  and 
the  arts  of  peace,  was  said  to  have  sprung,  clad  in  full  armor,  from 
the  head  of  Jupiter,  but  the  steam  engine  did  not  spring  full-fledged 


POWER.  69 

from  the  brain  of  any  inventor.  St.  Peter's,  the  largest  and  most 
famous  church  in  Christendom,  was  begun  in  1163  but  centuries  were 
required  for  its  completion.  The  identity  of  countless  multitudes 
engaged  in  its  construction  has  sunk  into  obscurity,  but  their  work 
stands.  Many  a  ruler  has  become  famous  simply  by  building  one  of 
its  thirty-seven  chapels.  An  architect  might  make  a  reputation  by 
designing  a  panel,  a  window,  or  a  column.  The  genius  of  Michael 
Angelo  found  a  fitting  occupation  in  the  construction  of  its  dome. 
Thus  it  stands  to-day,  grand,  awe-inspiring,  the  work  of  countless 
hands  and  many  minds.  The  steam  engine  has  required  for  its  per- 
fection the  best  inventive  talent  of  more  than  a  score  of  centuries, 
and  as  certain  parts  of  the  cathedral  are  sufficient  to  immortalize  the 
genius  of  its  constructors  so  in  the  working  parts  of  the  modern  steam 
engine  we  may  read  the  names  of  Hero,  Papin,  Savery,  Newcomen, 
Watt,  Sickles.  Allen,  Giffard,  and  Corliss. 

EVOLUTION  OF  THE  LOCOMOTIVE. 

Like  other  great  inventions,  the  locomotive  was  evolved  from  the 
workings  of  many  minds  and  in  its  development  passed  through  the 
usual  stages  of  doubt,  ridicule,  discussion,  and  adoption.  It  is  so 
familiar  a  sight  that  one  is  apt  to  forget  that  it  is  of  comparatively 
recent  origin.  Many  persons  now  living  were  born  before  it  was  in- 
troduced into  America.  People  seem  to  believe,  in  a  vague  sort  of 
a  way,  that  it  left  the  hands  of  Stephenson  the  perfect  machine  we 
know  to-day.  But  it  did  not  spring  forth  spontaneously;  on  the 
contrary  it  grew  to  its  present  proportions  and  efficiency  gradually 
in  response  to  the  pressing  demands  of  an  urgent  need. 

Nearly  two  thousand  years  after  Hero  and  his  ^Eolipyle  fore- 
shadowed the  steam  engine,  a  great  philosopher,  Sir  Isaac  Newton, 
mounted  Hero's  engine  on  wheels  and  the  germ  of  the  modern  loco- 
motive was  started.  Newton  in  1690  said,  "  We  have  a  more  sensi- 


70  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

ble  effect  of  the  elasticity  of  vapors  if  a  hole  be  made  in  a  hollow 
metal  ball  and  stopped  and  partly  filled  with  water  and  then  the  ball 
be  laid  upon  the  fire  until  the  water  boils  violently.  After  this  if 
the  ball  be  set  down  on  wheels  so  as  to  move  easily  on  a  horizontal 
plane  and  the  hollow  be  opened,  the  vapors  will  rush  out  violently 
one  way  and  the  wheels  and  the  ball  at  the  same  time  will  be  carried 
the  contrary  way."  Just  as  for  centuries  the  philosophers  had 
amused  themselves  with  Hero's  ^olipyle,  Newton's  rude  vehicle 
was  spoken  of  only  as  a  curiosity.  One  of  the  instructors  in  Edin- 
burgh College  suggested  to  Watt  in  1769  that  he  turn  his  attention 
to  steam  carriages.  The  suggestion  did  not  bear  fruit,  and  the  low 
pressure  engine  which  Watt  was  engaged  in  developing  would  not 
have  been  suitable  for  that  purpose. 

First  Steam  Carriage.  Nicholas  Joseph  Cugnot  of  Paris  con- 
structed in  1769  a  rude  three-wheeled  carriage  propelled  by  steam. 

His  engines  could  keep  up  steam 
only  about  fifteen  minutes  at  a  time, 
and  his  carriage  showed  a  speed  of 
about  two  and  one  fourth  miles  an 

hour.      It   was   driven  over  the   or- 

CUGNOT'S  CARRIAGE.  ,.  ,  ,     .      ,, 

dmary    roads    and    is    the    common 

ancestor  of  the  automobile  and  the  locomotive.  After  a  few  trials 
Cugnot's  carriage  tipped  over  in  the  streets  of  Paris  and  was  locked 
up  in  the  arsenal  for  a  time  by  the  authorities  for  fear  it  would  injure 
some  one.  Cugnot  built  another  in  1770  which  is  still  preserved  in 
a  Paris  museum. 

Oliver  Evans,  an  American,  in  1786  constructed  a  queer  amphibi- 
ous affair  propelled  by  steam.  It  was  to  move  along  the  roads  to 
the  bank  of  the  river  at  the  regular  ford,  swim  the  stream,  climb  the 
opposite  bank,  and  proceed  on  its  way.  It  was  not  practicable,  but 
the  legislature  of  Pennsylvania  passed  a  law  prohibiting  him  from 
running  it  on  the  roads  of  that  state. 


POWER.  71 

Captain  Richard  Trevithick  (177 1-183 3)  was  the  father  of  the  loco- 
motive and  the  pioneer  in  the  manufacture  of  high  pressure  engines. 
Watt  and  Newcomen  had  used  their  engines  at  only  a  few  pounds 
pressure  above  the  atmosphere,  and  Watt  to  the  end  of  his  days  re- 
mained a  sturdy  opponent  of  high  pressure  engines.  Davies  Gilbert, 
a  scientist  of  high  repute  and  president  of  the  Royal  Society,  wrote: 
"Trevithick  came  to  me  and  inquired  with  great  eagerness  what 
would  be  the  loss  of  power  in  working  an  engine  by  the  force  of 
steam  raised  to  the  pressure  of  several  atmospheres,  but  instead  of 
condensing  it  to  let  it  escape.  I  answered,  the  loss  of  power  would 
be  one  atmosphere  less  the  saving  effected  by  discarding  the  condens- 
ing machinery.  I  never  saw  a  man  so  delighted." 

High  Pressure.  Trevithick  set  about  improving  his  boilers  and 
raised  the  steam  pressure  to  150  pounds.  The  legitimate  develop- 
ment of  this  idea  has  made  possible  the  speedy  and  powerful  engines 
of  the  locomotive  and  the  ocean  steamer.  So  remarkable  a  career 
may  well  claim  a  little  of  our  space.  He  made  in  1796  a  model  of  a 
locomotive  which  is  yet  preserved  in  South  Kensington  Museum. 
Many  crude  and  ludicrous  ideas  prevailed  among  the  first  inventors 
who  turned  their  attention  to  the  locomotive:  one  that  the  cylin- 
ders should  be  in  a  vertical  position  that  the  weight  of  the  atmos- 
phere upon  the  piston  might  help  hold  the  engine  upon  the  rails; 
another  that  smooth  wheels  would  not  adhere  enough  to  the  rails  to 
give  the  engine  any  power.  In  1800  Trevithick  and  Gilbert,  to 
satisfy  the  vexed  question  for  themselves,  hired  the  only  chaise  in 
the  little  town  of  Camborne,  drove  it  to  the  foot  of  a  steep  hill,  un- 
hitched the  horse  and  moved  the  chaise  to  the  top  of  the  hill  by 
turning  around  the  spokes  of  the  wheels  with  their  hands.  Trevithick 
had  no  further  fear  that  the  smooth  wheels  of  his-locomotive  would  not 
have  sufficient  adhesion  and  he  at  once  set  to  work  to  build  his  first 
steam  carriage.  His  engine  had  a  cast-iron  boiler,  a  wrought-iron 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


fireplace  with  a  return  flue,  a  vertical  cylinder  let  into  the  boiler,  a 
feed  water  heater,  and  was  mounted  on  four  wheels.  Draft  was 
secured  by  exhausting  its  steam  into  the.  chimney  and  further  in- 
creased by  a  leather  hand  bellows.  These  facts  are  worthy  of  notice, 
for  other  inventors,  among  them  the  Stephensons,  years  afterward 
claimed  some  of  them  for  their  own.  On  Christmas  Eve,  1801,  the 
first  trial  was  made,  and  an  eyewitness  has  said:  "  When  we  seed 

Cap'n  Dick  was  a-going  to 
turn  on  steam,  we  jumped 
up,  as  many  as  could,  may- 
be seven  or  eight  of  us. 
'Twas  a  stiffish  hill  going 
from  the  Weith  up  to  Cam- 
borne  Beacon,  but  she 
went  off  like  a  bird."  Tried 
a  few  days  later  something 
broke  and  the  carriage  was 
run  under  a  shed  while  the 
company  adjourned  to  an  inn  to  regale  themselves  with  roast  goose 
and  the  drinks  of  the  season.  At  the  close  of  their  festivities  they 
returned  to  find  that  a  heap  of  ashes  and  a  few  tangled  irons  repre- 
sented the  shed  and  the  locomotive.  When  Trevithick's  puffing 
engine  appeared  one  good  old  lady  exclaimed  to  his  partner,  "  Good 
gracious,  Mr.  Vivian,  what  will  come  next  ?  I  can't  compare  it  to 
anything  but  a  walking,  puffing  devil."  Trevithick  and  his  partner, 
Captain  Vivian,  took  out  a  patent  in  March,  1802. 

First  Locomotive  on  Rails.  In  1803  he  built  a  locomotive  as  the 
result  of  a  wager  that  one  could  not  run  over  a  tramway  in  South 
Wales  nine  miles  long  and  carry  ten  tons,  but  it  carried  the  re- 
quired load  and  seventy  men  in  addition.  In  this  locomotive,  the  first 
that  ever  ran  on  rails,  he  dispensed  with  the  leather  bellows  and  used 


TREVITHICK  LOCOMOTIVE. 


POWER. 


73 


a  horizontal  cylinder  turning  the  exhaust  steam  from  it  into  the 
chimney  to  increase  the  draft.  In  1805  he  built  a  locomotive  for  a 
Newcastle  colliery  but  it  was  diverted  from  its  intended  purpose  and 
used  to  drive  an  air  blast  .for  a  furnace.  William  Hedley,  the  mana- 
ger of  the  colliery,  five  years  later 
patented  an  engine  and  claimed  the 
first  application  of  smooth  wheels 
for  steam  traction.  Hackenworth, 
who  later  invented  an  engine,  also 
worked  in  the  same  colliery,  and 
George  Stephenson,  who  built  his 
first  locomotive  in  1814,  was  close 
by.  In  1808  Trevithick  exhibited 
in  London  on  a  circular  track,  a  loco- 
motive with  a  speed  of  twelve  miles 
an  hour  and  carried  passengers  for  a 
shilling  a  head.  About  1811  a  rep- 
resentative of  silver  mines  in  Peru 
came  ^to  Boulton  and  Watt,  and 

asked  them  to  design  an  e'ngine  for  use  in  the  Peruvian  mines,  small 
enough  so  that  it  could  be  taken  apart,  and  carried  over  the  moun- 
tains 15,000  feet  above  the  sea.  They  declared  it  impossible.  The 
agent  hunted  up  Trevithick,  who  not  only  built  several  small  engines 
for  him  but  finally  followed  them  to  Peru  to  superintend  mining  oper- 
ations. His  experiences  were  varied  and  highly  interesting.  This  was 
the  period  of  the  revolt  of  the  Spanish  colonies  against  the  mother 
country.  Trevithick  designed  a  brass  carbine  and  was  impressed  into 
service,  together  with  $20,000  of  his  money  and  property.  After 
other  adventures  and  narrow  escapes  he  returned  to  England,  having 
been  absent  eleven  years.  It  is  computed  that  his  engines  and  im- 
proved methods  had  saved  $2,500,000  to  the  Peruvian  miners,  but 


GEORGE  STEPHENSON. 


74  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

Trevithick  appeared  with  his  clothing  worn  to  tatters  and  having 
only  a  magnetic  compass,  a  gold  watch,  drawing  compasses,  and  a 
pair  of  silver  spurs  to  show  for  his  eleven  years'  work.  "During  his 
absence  from  England  other  inventors  had  made  some  improvements 
in  locomotives  and  there  is  a  tradition  current  that  Robert  Stephen- 
son  met  Trevithick  somewhere  in  South  America  and  came  home 
with  him,  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the  subsequent  builder  of  the 
"  Rocket." 

Trevithick  was  a  busy  man  and  locomotives  were  only  one  of  the 
many  things  with  which  he  occupied  himself.  He  began  the  con- 
struction of  a  tunnel  under  the  Thames  river,  in  fact,  progressing 
until  he  was  within  seventy  feet  of  low  water  mark,  when  the  direc- 
tors of  the  company  for  which  he  was  at  work  quarreled  among 
themselves  and  the  scheme  fell  through.  He  was  the  first  to  build 
the  locomotive  on  a  practical  scale  to  run  on  rails,  the  first  to  use 
flanged  wheels,  to  exhaust  the  steam  into  the  chimney  to  increase 
the  draft,  to  adopt  high  pressure  boilers,  and  to  discover  that  smooth 
wheels  were  sufficient  for  traction  purposes. 

The  first  locomotive  intended  for  passenger  service  was  built 
in  1821  by  Julius  Griffiths.  Its  machinery  was  intricate  and  it  never 
proved  a  success.  Up  to  1825  the  only  practical  locomotives  were 
used  in  hauling  coal  at  the  mines,  but  that  year  the  Stockton  and 
Darlington  Railway  was  opened  for  passenger  and  goods  traffic. 
The  first  train  was  hauled  by  an  engine  built  by  George  Stephenson, 
who  acted  as  engineer  on  the  trial  trip.  "Off  started  the  procession 
with  a  horseman  at  its  head.  A  great  concourse  of  people  stood 
along  the  line.  Many  of  them  tried  to  accompany  it  by  running, 
and  some  gentlemen  on  horseback  galloped  across  the  fields  to  keep 
up  with  the  engine.  The  railway  descending  with  a  gentle  incline 
toward  Darlington,  the  rate  of  speed  was  consequently  variable.  At 
a  favorable  part  of  the  road  Stephenson  determined  to  try  the  speed 


POWER. 


of  the  engine  and  called  upon  the  horseman  with  the  flag  to  get  out 
of  the  way.  Stephenson  put  on  the  speed  to  twelve  miles  and  then 
to  fifteen  miles  an  hour,  and  the  runners  on  foot,  the  gentlemen  on 
horseback,  and  the  horseman  with  the  flag  were  soon  left  behind. 


FIRST  TRAIN  ON  THE  STOCKTON  AND  DARLINGTON  RAILWAY  (1825),  DRAWN  BY 
STEPHENSON'S  "  No.   i." 

When  the  train  reached  Darlington  it  was  found  that  450  passengers 
occupied  the  wagons,  and  that  the  load  of  men,  coal,  and  merchan- 
dise amounted  to  about  ninety  tons." 

The  Rainhill  Contest.  The  famous  Rainhill  contest,  which  took 
place  October  6,  1829,  for  the  purpose  of  selecting  the  motive  power 
for  the  new  Liverpool  and  Manchester  railroad,  was  one  of  the  most 
important  events  in  the  history  of  the  locomotive.  An  editorial  in 
the  famous  Quarterly  Review  of  that  period  shows  the  doubt  and 
ridicule  that  had  yet  to  be  removed  before  the  locomotive  could  be 
generally  adopted.  "  As  to  those  persons  who  speculate  on  making 
railways  general  throughout  the  kingdom,  and  superseding  all  the 
canals,  all  the  wagons,  mails,  stage-coaches,  post-chaises,  and,  in 
short,  every  other  mode  of  conveyance  by  land  or  by  water,  we 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


deem  them  and  their  visionary  schemes  unworthy  of  notice.  The 
gross  exaggerations  of  the  locomotive  steam  engine  (or,  to  speak  in 
plain  English,  the  steam  carriage)  may  delude  for  a  time,  but  must 
end  in  the  mortification  of  those  concerned.  We  should  as  soon  ex- 
pect the  people  to  suffer  themselves  to  be  fired  off  upon  one  of  Con- 
greve's  ricochet  rockets,  as  trust  themselves  at  the  mercy  of  such  a 
machine  going  at  such  a  rate."  Some  of  the  conditions  of  the  con- 
test were  that  the  engine  must  consume  its  own  smoke.  It  must 
draw  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour  a  train  of  carriages  of  three 
times  its  own  weight.  The  boiler  must  be  able  to  withstand  a  test 
of  150  pounds  to  the  square  inch, 'but  the  engine  must  perform  its 
work  with  a  pressure  not  to  exceed  fifty  pounds.  The  engine  and 
boiler  were  to  be  supported  on  springs  mounted  on  six  wheels,  and 
the  height  of  the  whole  not  to  exceed  fifteen  feet. 
Each  engine  must  have  two  safety  valves,  and  for 
fear  of  "jockeying  "  one  must  be  beyond  the  reach 
and  control  of  the  engine  man.  The  weight  of  the 
engine  under  no  condition  was  to  exceed  six  tons  and 
the  preference  would  be  given 
to  a  lighter  one.  The  engine 
and  train  were  to  make  forty 
trips  of  a  mile  and  three  fourths 
each.  One  eighth  of  a  mile 
was  allowed  at  each  end  of  the 
trial  course  for  starting  and 
stopping.  The  minimum  rate 
of  speed  for  the  whole  trial  was 
ten  miles  an  hour.  John  Erics- 
son, the  builder  of  the  Monitor,  "ROCKET. 
entered  an  engine  in  the  competition  which  to  this  day  his  partisans 
claim  was  a  better  one  than  Stephenson's,  but  the  hot-headed  Swede 


POWER.  77 

lost  his  temper  and  withdrew,  unknown  to  his  partner,  without  mak- 
ing a  trial.  Five  competitors  appeared  at  the  trial  and  one  was  ruled 
out  because  his  engine  was  driven  by  horse  power.  The  test  was 
too  severe  for  two  others.  The  "  Rocket,"  built  by  Robert  Stephen- 
son,  son  of  George  Stephenson,  not  only  withstood  the  test  but  did 
twice  as  much  work  as  the  conditions  of  the  contest  demanded.  It 
attained  a  maximum  speed  of  twenty-four  and  one  fourth  miles  an 
hour  and  maintained  an  average  speed  of  13.81  miles  per  hour. 
Stephenson's  engine  won  the  prize  of  £500,  which  had  been  offered  to 
the  successful  contestant.  As  a  result,  locomotives  of  the  "Rocket" 
type,  only  heavier  and  more  powerful,  were  chosen  as  the  motive 
power  for  the  new  railway. 

The  First  Man  Killed  by  Railroad.  The  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester railroad  was  formally  opened  with  great  ceremony  September 
-15,  1830.  But,  as  if  prophetic  of  its  future  demands,  the  Moloch  of 
travel  claimed  as  its  first  victim  William  Huskisson,  a  minister  of 
the  cabinet,  and  Stephenson's  "Rocket"  has  the  unfortunate  record 
of  being  the  first  to  kill  a  man  in  a  railroad  accident. 

After  Rainhill  the  development  of  the  English  and  the  American 
locomotives  ran  nearly  parallel,  and  to-day  there  is  no  great  differ- 
ence between  the  two  national  types  of  engines.  A  custom  peculiar 
to  England  originated  with  the  introduction  of  the  locomotive. 
Shippers  were  at  first  backward  about  patronizing  the  new  system. 
To  encourage  trade  the  railroads  offered  to  deliver  freight  free  to  the 
shipper,  instead  of  leaving  it  at  depots  as  is  customary  in  other 
countries.  A  custom  once  established  in  England  is  not  easily 
changed  and  free  delivery  still  prevails.  At  one  station  the  railroad 
company  employs  2, 100  men  and  800  horses  to  deliver  its  freight. 

The  Pioneer  Engines  in  America.  The  earliest  locomotives 
used  in  America  were  of  English  manufacture.  The  "  Stourbridge 
Lion,"  the  first  practical  one  to  run  on  a  railroad  in  the  United 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


States,  was  built  by  Stephenson  &  Co.,  and  arrived  at  New  York 
May,  1829,  and  was  tried  during  that  year  on  a  portion  of  the  Dela- 
ware and  Hudson  Canal  Company's  road.  The  first  locomotive  made 
in  the  United  States  was  "  The  Best  Friend  of  Charleston."  It  was 
built  at  West  Point  foundry  in  New  York  city  and  put  on  the  track 
November  2,  1830.  It  was  not  markedly  successful.  An- 
other pioneer  was  the  "  John  Bull,"  built  by  Stephenson 
&  Co.  for  the  Camden  and  Amboy 
road  of  New  Jersey.  This  locomo- 
tive is  now  in  the  National  Museum 
at  Washington.  At  the  time  of  the 
World's  Fair  at  Chicago  it  proceeded 
under  its  own  steam  from  Washing- 
ton to  that  city  and  carried  more  than 
50,000  passengers  on  a  special  track 
at  the  Exposition  Grounds. 

The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad 
had  intended  to  use  horse  power, 
but  Peter  Cooper  induced  the  man- 
agers to  give  his  engine  a  trial.  Coo- 
per's engine  looked  like  a  flour  barrel  on  a  hand  car.  Gun  barrels 
were  used  for  boiler  tubes.  Mr.  Cooper  in  after  years  told  with 
great  glee  how  he  raced  with  a  gray  horse  hitched  to  another  car 
and  defeated  his  four-legged  antagonist  after  a  hard  contest.  Crude 
as  was  Cooper's  engine  it  showed  the  value  of  steam  power.  The 
management  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad  advertised  that  they 
would  hold  a  contest  June  2,  1832,  for  the  purpose  of  selecting  a  lo- 
comotive. The  weight  was  limited  to  three  and  one  half  tons,  the 
extreme  height  to  twelve  feet,  and  steam  pressure  of  one  hundred 
pounds  was  allowed.  With  these  exceptions  the  conditions  were 
about  the  same  as  those  of  Rainhill.  A  first  prize  of  $4,000  and  a 


"  STOURBRIDGE  LION." 

The  first  locomotive  to  run  in  America. 


POWER.  79 

second  of  $3,500  were  offered.  At  the  contest  the  first  prize  was 
won  by  "The  York,"  built  by  Phineas  Davis  of  Little  York,  Pa., 
and  this  engine,  considerably  modified  by  Winans,  became  the  type 
of  locomotive  first  used  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad.  The 
question  of  steam  power  came  rapidly  to  the  front.  American  in- 
ventors gave  the  matier  their  attention  to  such  good  effect  that  in 
1837  the  Norris  Works  of  Philadelphia  shipped  a  locomotive  to  Aus- 
tria, and  in  1839  Matthias  W.  Baldwin  of  the  same  city  filled  orders 
from  England.  Perhaps  no  man  in  America  has  done  more  than  he 
for  the  improvement  of  locomotives.  The  history  of  the  American 
locomotive  must  include  some  mention,  at  least,  of  the  Baldwin  Lo- 
comotive Works,  an  establishment  that  has  constructed  half  the 
locomotives  ever  used  on  this  continent. 

The  First  Practical  American  Locomotive.  The  Rainhill  con- 
test excited  interest  in  America  and  the  manager  of  the  Philadelphia 
Museum  applied  to  Mr.  Baldwin,  then  a  famous  machinist,  to  make 
for  him  a  miniature  locomotive  for  exhibition  purposes.  With  the 
aid  only  of  imperfect  descriptions  and  sketches  of  the  Rainhill  com- 
petitors Mr.  Baldwin  undertook  the  task,  and  April  25,  1831,  the 
engine  was  put  in  motion  in  the  Museum.  The  course  was  a  circu- 
lar track  made  of  pine  boards  covered  with  hoop  iron.  Two  small 
cars  furnished  seats  for  four  passengers,  and  the  spectacle  attracted 
large  crowds  and  aroused  great  public  interest.  The  model  was  so 
successful  that  the  Philadelphia,  Germantown  and  Norristown  Rail- 
road Company,  operating  a  short  line  of  six  miles,  gave  Mr.  Baldwin 
an  order  for  a  locomotive  to  take  the  place  of  the  horses  they  were 
then  using.  One  can  hardly  appreciate  the  difficulties  that  con- 
fronted the  manufacturer.  There  were  no  s.uitable  tools,  no  plans 
or  specifications,  and  almost  no  literature.  This  was  the  situation 
that  confronted  Mr.  Baldwin  when  he  started  to  build  "Old  Iron- 
sides," the  first  serviceable  locomotive  of  American  construction. 


8o 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


The  Camden  and  Amboy  road  had  imported  an  English  locomotive. 
The  parts  not  yet  assembled  were  lying  under  a  shed  at  Bordentown, 
N.  J.  Mr.  Baldwin  paid  it  a  visit,  made  some  measurements  and 
a  memoranda,  and  set  at  work.  There  were  few  machinists  capable 
of  doing  work  on  such  an  engine  and  few  blacksmiths  able  to  weld  a 
bar  of  iron  more  than  one  and  one  fourth  inches  in  thickness.  So 
crude  were  the  appliances  that  the  cylinders,  9^  inches  in  diameter, 
were  "  bored  by  a  chisel,  fixed  in  a  block  of  wood  and 
turned  by  hand."  Th.e  engine  was  supported  on  springs, 
and  inclosed  within  a  wooden  frame  mounted  on  four 
wheels.  The  rear 
pair  were  driving- 
wheels,  54  inches  in 
diameter,  fixed  to 
an  axle  bent  to 
form  a  crank.  The 
wheel  hubs  were 
cast-iron,  the 
spokes  of  wood, 
and  the  tires 
wrought-iron.  The  price  was  to  have  been 


OLD  IRONSIDES/ 


This  locomotive  was  built  by  Baldwin  in  1832,  and  at  that  time  represented 
the  acme  of  locomotive  building.     Note  the  contrast  with  the  Atlantic  type  of 
.-  r    locomotive. 


,000,  but  some  alter- 
ations were  necessary  before  it  worked  well  and  a  compromise  price 
°f  $3>5°°  was  finally  accepted.  After  much  work  it  was  com- 
pleted and  tried  November,  1832.  There  were  so  many  disappoint- 
ments and  annoyances  connected  with  it  that  Mr.  Baldwin  declared 
emphatically,  "This  is  our  last  locomotive."  Yet  the  plant  he 
founded  has  since  turned  out  nearly  20,000.  After  some  alterations 
the  "  Ironsides  "  reached  a  speed  of  thirty  miles  an  hour.  "  So  great 
were  the  wonder  and  curiosity  which  attached  to  such  a  prodigy  that 
people  flocked  to  see  the  marvel  and  eagerly  bought  the  privilege  of 
riding  after  the  strange  monster."  Even  the  management  of  the  road 


POWER.  8 1 

did  not  regard  the  machine   seriously  but  rather  as  a  curiosity  and  a 
bait  to  attract  travel,  as  is  shown  by  one  of  their  advertisements. 

The  fascination  of   locomotive   building   overcame   Mr.  Baldwin's 
resolutions  and  he  soon  gave  his  whole  time  to  it.      When  the  panic 


THE  ATLANTIC  TYPE  OF  LOCOMOTIVE. 

It  is  this  type  which  is  used  on  the  fast  runs  from  Camden  to  Atlantic  City. 

of  1837  struck  the  country  he  became  heavily  involved  and  offered 
to  turn  over  everything  to  his  creditors.  This  would  have  paid  them 
about  twenty-five  cents  on  the  dollar,  but  they  had  such  great  con- 
fidence in  the  man  that  they  allowed  him  to  continue,  and  in  five 
years  he  had  paid  off  every  penny  of  his  indebtedness. 

First  Effort  at  Speed.  The  poverty  of  the  country  and  the  low 
state  of  iron  making  made  the  demand  for  locomotives  limited,  but 
they  were  constantly  improved  by  many  skillful  workmen  and  grew 
rapidly  in  size.  It  is  amusing  to  note  that  as  late  as  1842  Mr.  Bald- 
win believed  a  locomotive  built  in  1838,  weighing  thirteen  tons,  was 
as  large  as  would  ever  be  needed.  To-day  just  the  tender,  carrying 
the  coal  and  water  of  a  large  locomotive,  weighs  six  times  as  much. 
Great  speed  was  not  a  consideration  and  it  was  not  until  1848  that  the 
Central  Vermont  railroad  called  particular  attention  to  that  quality. 
They  offered  Mr.  Baldwin  $10,000  for  a  locomotive  that  could  draw 
a  passenger  train  at  the  rate  of  sixty  miles  an  hour.  He  completed 
and  delivered  to  them  the  "Governor  Paine,"  which  had  only  one 
pair  of  driving  wheels,  six  and  one  half  feet  in  diameter,  and  was  the 


82  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

first  fast  passenger  locomotive.  It  was  advertised  that  this  engine 
could  start  from  a  rest  and  run  a  mile  in  forty-three  seconds.  It 
undoubtedly  did  possess  high  speed,  but  had  insufficient  adhesion  to 
do  the  great  amount  of  work  required  of  it. 

Perfecting  the  Locomotive.  As  if  in  obedience  to  a  general  law 
governing  inventions,  the  locomotive  of  to-day  is  a  composite  struc- 
ture bearing  the  different  features  contributed  by  the  minds  that 
evolved  it.  Trevithick  in  1802  turned  the  exhaust  steam  from  the 
cylinders  into  the  chimney  to  increase  the  draft  of  the  furnace. 
Hackworth  in  1827  mounted  the  bell  on  the  locomotive  and  improved 
upon  the  method  of  using  exhaust  steam.  Seguin  in  1828  designed 
the  tubular  boiler,  which  exposed  much  more  heating  surface  to  the 
furnace  fire  and  greatly  increased  the  steam  supply.  William  T. 
James  of  New  York  in  1832  first  used  the  "  link-motion,"  improved 
eleven  years  afterward  by  the  Stephensons.  This  makes  it  possible 
to  reverse  the  engine  and  to  cut  off  "steam  in  either  direction  so  that 
it  will  act  expansively.  It  also  prevents  the  engine  from  getting 
"on  the  center."  Stephenson  added  the  steam  whistle  in  1833. 
Baldwin  in  1834  ground  the  faces  of  the  joints  to  make  them  steam 
tight  instead  of  packing  them  with  red  lead  and  canvas,  as  was  the 
custom.  When  four,  six,  and  eight  wheel  drivers  were  applied  to 
the  locomotive  it  was  found  difficult  with  so  many  wheels  in  a 
straight  line  to  get  around  sharp  curves.  Baldwin  patented  in  1842 
a  device  by  which  truck  beams  connecting  the  wheels  were  permitted 
to  move  like  parallel  rulers.  A  little  play,  a  thirty-second  of  an 
inch,  was  left  in  the  brasses  of  the  connecting  rods  and  the  locomo- 
tive could  turn  in  a  circle  200  feet  in  diameter.  If  a  railroad  track 
were  laid  in  a  circle  and  two  wheels  fastened  firmly  to  one  axle  were 
rolled  about  it,  since  the  outer  wheel  would  have  to  travel  the 
greater  distance  and  one  wheel  could  not  turn  without  the  other 
there  would  be  constant  slipping  and  increased  friction.  To  over- 


POWER.  83 

come  this,  ordinary  car  wheels  are  made  with  the  tread  (that  part  of 
the  rim  bearing  upon  the  rail)  slightly  tapering,  the  outer  edge  being 
smaller  in  diameter  than  the  edge  next  the  flange.  The  rails  are 
slightly  farther  apart  than  the  flanges  of  the  wheels.  In  running 
around  a  curve  the  outer  wheel  hugs  the  rail,  the  flange  bears  against 
it  and  keeps  the  car  from  leaving  the  track.  When  in  this  position 
the  outer  wheel  runs  upon  that  part  of  the  tread  having  the  greater 
diameter,  and  the  inner  wheel,  being  slightly  drawn  away  from  the 
inner  rail,  runs  upon  that  part  of  its  tread  that  is  smaller  in  diameter. 
By  this  means  the  outer  wheel  covers  more  distance  than  the  inner 
wheel,  and  some  friction  and  slipping  are  thus  done  away  with. 
The  Giffard  injector,  which  forces  feed  water  from  the  tanks  to  the 
boiler  by  condensing  a  small  jet  of  steam,  appeared  in  1859.  West- 
inghouse  perfected  his  air  brake  in  1869. 

With  better  tracks  the  length  and  weight  of  trains  increased  as 
well  as  the  speed.  The  value  of  the  coal  consumed  and  the  amount 
carried  then  became  a  more  important  factor,  for  every  ton  of  coal 
in  the  tender  of  a  locomotive  displaces  a  ton  of  paying  freight.  The 
compound  stationary  engine  having  proved  economical,  the  principle 
was  applied  to  the  locomotive  and  seems  likely  eventually  to  displace 
the  simple  engine. 

Compound  Engines.  In  steam  engines  steam  is  not  turned  on 
from  the  boiler  for  the-  full  length  of  the  piston  stroke  but  is  "  cut 
off,"  and  the  expansive  force  of  the  imprisoned  steam  drives  the  pis- 
ton for  the  remainder  of  the  stroke.  A  great  saving  of  steam  and 
fuel  is  thus  effected.  With  a  single  cylinder  steam  cannot  be  ex- 
panded to  the  point  of  greatest  efficiency.  So  engines  are  made 
with  two,  three,  and  even  four  cylinders,  and  the  steam  after  doing  its 
work  in  one  cylinder  is  passed  into  the  next  cylinder  instead  of  being 
exhausted  into  the  air.  On  reaching  the  second  cylinder  it  is  again 
expanded,  and  passed  into  perhaps  a  third  cylinder,  and  made  to  do 


84 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


still  more  work.  Each  successive  cylinder  is  made  larger  than  its 
predecessor,  for  it  has  not  been  found  practicable  to  carry  steam  at 
the  same  volume  from  one  cylinder  to  another.  In  some  marine 
engines  the  steam  as  it  enters  the  first  cylinder  has  a  pressure  of  200 
pounds  to  the  square  inch,  and  when  it  is  exhausted  from  the  last 
cylinder,  has  a  pressure  perhaps  only  one  pound  above  that  of  the 
condenser.  Thus  nearly  all  the  available  work  has  been  taken  out 
of  it. 

The  Vauclain  System  is  the  one  most  widely  used  in  American 
locomotives.  This  system  mounts  two  cylinders  on  each  side  of  the 
locomotive  and  each  side  forms  a  complete  compound  engine.  The 

steam  issues  from  the  boiler 
to  the  high  pressure  cylinder 
shown  at  the  top  of  the  cut. 
The  portion  between  the  up- 
per and  lower  cylinders  is  oc- 
cupied by  valves  of  the  piston 
type.  The  first  part  of  the 
valve  section  is  made  up  of 
the  ends  of  the  valves  con- 
trolling the  admission  of  the 
steam  from  the  boiler  to  the 
high  pressure  cylinder.  After 
having  performed  its  work  in 
the  upper  cylinder,  the  steam 
passes  to  the  low  pressure  cyl- 
inder. By  this  system  steam  from  the  boiler  can  be  used  in  both 
cylinders  at  the  same  time  if  an  emergency  requires.  This  is  a  marked 
advantage  in  starting  a  heavy  train  or  working  it  up  a  steep  grade, 
for  if  the  boiler  can  furnish  the  steam,  it  can  be  applied  at  full 
pressure  to  four  pistons  instead  of  two  as  in  the  simple  locomotive. 


VAUCLAIN  SYSTEM  OF  VALVES. 


POWER.  85 

After  the  load  is  started  the  engine  can  then  be  worked  compound 
and  do  more  work  with  the  same  amount  of  steam  and  coal  than 
a  simple  engine.  The  compound  locomotive  not  only  saves  steam1 
and  coal,  but,  as  it  exhausts  at  a  lower  pressure,  it  does  not  pull  the 
coal  out  of  the  fire-box  and  blow  it  out  of  the  stack  in  the  form  of 
sparks  and  cinders  as  does  the  ordinary  single  expansion  engine. 
The  loss  of  coal  from  sparks  and  cinders  varies  from  5  to  10  per 
cent,  of  the  coal  fired  in  the  ordinary  locomotive.  There  is  none 
of  the  noisy  puffing  about  the  compound  type,  usually  associated 
with  the  idea  of  a  locomotive.  Many  very  careful  tests  of  the  com- 
pound engines  have  been  made  and  the  saving  of  coal  effected  by 
their  use  has  been  found  to  vary  between  14  per  cent,  and  68  per 
cent,  in  the  various  tests.  The  Vauclain  system  is  certainly  eco- 
nomical. The  low  pressure  at  which  the  steam  is  exhausted  into 
the  chimney  gives  a  mild  draft  in  the  furnace  that  will  allow  pea  coal 
to  be  used  in  place  of  egg  coal,  a  marked  saving  in  cost.  A  test 
was  made  with  two  Baldwin  locomotives,  one  of  the  ordinary  type 
burning  egg  coal,  the  other  exactly  like  it  except  for  its  compound 
cylinders  and  burning  pea  coal.  The  compound  system  showed  a 
saving  of  6.9  per  cent,  in  weight  and  68.6  per  cent,  in  cost  of  coal. 
There  are  about  40,000  locomotives  in  the  United  States  alone.  If 
a  good  compound  system  were  adopted  for  all,  the  saving  in  the 
coal  bill  would  be  enormous. 

Quick  Locomotive  Building.  Although  locomotives  are  now 
much  larger  and  heavier  than  formerly,  the  time  required  for  their 
construction  has  been  greatly  reduced.  Nearly  a  year  was  necessary 
for  the  completion  of  "  Old  Ironsides."  In  1873  the  same  company 
turned  out  a  small  engine  on  a  ''special  urgency  order"  in  sixteen 
working  days.  In  1889  a  test  case  was  made.  On  Saturday,  June 
22,  Mr.  Robert  H.  Coleman  ordered  a  narrow-gauge  "American" 
type  passenger  locomotive  and  tender,  which  it  was  agreed  should 


86  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

be  ready  for  service  on  his  railroad  in  Lebanon  County,  Pa.,  by  the 
4th  of  July  following.  The  boiler  material  was  at  once  ordered 
and  was  received  Tuesday,  June  25.  The  boiler  was  completed  and 
taken  to  the  erecting  shop  on  Friday,  June  28,  and  on  Monday, 
July  i,  the  machinery,  frames,  wheels,  etc.,  were  attached  and 
the  locomotive  was  tried  under  steam  in  the  works.  The  tender  was 
completed  the  following  day,  thus  making  the  record  of  the  construc- 
tion of  a  complete  locomotive  from  the  raw  material  in  eight  work- 
ing days. 

The  Baldwin  Company.  In  1861,  thirty  years  after  building 
its  first  locomotive,  the  Baldwin  Company  had  turned  out  one  thou- 
sand. To-day  its  plant  has  an  annual  capacity  of  that  number.  Mr. 
Baldwin  started  in  business  in  a  small  shop  on  a  narrow  alley  off 
from  Walnut  Street  and  did  much  of  the  work  on  his  first  locomotive 
with  his  own  hands.  To-day  the  establishment  has  twenty-four 
buildings,  lighted  by  more  than  three  thousand  electric  lights,  and 
covering  sixteen  acres  of  ground.  Between  five  and  six  thousand 
workmen  are  employed  and  the  principal  departments  run  twenty- 
four  hours  a  day.  Fifteen  hundred  tons  of  iron  and  steel  per  week 
are  used.  One  thousand  tons  of  coal  per  week  are  consumed  to  turn 
the  machinery.  Such  is  the  fairy-like  growth  of  an  industry  but 
seventy  years  old. 

The  smallest  locomotives  are  employed  for  drawing  ore  cars  in 
mines.  Those  designed  for  speed  have  large  driving  wheels,  usually 
six  and  one  half  feet,  sometimes'eight  feet,  in  diameter,  and  but  few 
of  them.  Engines  for  hauling  heavy  loads  have  from  six  to  ten 
small  driving  wheels,  sometimes  as  small  as  three  and  one  half  and 
four  feet  in  diameter.  The  greater  the  weight  borne  by  the  driving 
wheels  the  greater  the  adhesion  of  the  wheels  to  the  rail  and  the 
more  the  engine  can  draw.  The  engine  and  boiler  are  suspended  on 
powerful  and  heavy  but  easy  and  elastic  springs  to  prevent  the  jar 


POWER.  87 

from  the  roadbed  being  transmitted.      The  life  of  the  average  engine 
is  about  thirty  years. 

Increasing  the  Engine's  Power.  One  of  the  most  conspicuous 
features  of  modern  locomotives  is  the  enormous  increase  in  their  size 
and  weight,  in  which  they  seem  to  be  limited  only  by  the  power  of 
the  rails  to  support  the  load.  In  forty  years  the  cylinder  capacity 
of  the  passenger  type  has  been  doubled.  The  diameter  of  the  driv- 
ing wheels  has  been  increased  from  sixty  inches  to  eighty-six  inches. 
The  boiler  pressure  has  been  increased  from  100  pounds  to  210 
pounds  to  the  square  inch,  and  engines  are  now  being  built  which 
are  designed  to  carry  250  pounds  pressure.  The  tractive  power  or 
pull  at  the  draw-bar  has  been  increased  from  7,980  to  25,000  pounds. 
The  growth  of  the  lo-wheel  or  consolidation  type,  which  is  used 
mainly  for  freight  service,  has  been  fully  as  remarkable. 


THE  HEAVIEST  LOCOMOTIVE  IN  THE  WORLD. 

The  Largest  Locomotive.  Locomotives  can  now  be  made  larger 
only  by  making  them  longer,  for  the  new  giant  built  by  the  Pitts- 
burg  Locomotive  Works  for  the  Pittsburg,  Bessemer,  and  Lake  Erie 
railroad  has  reached  the  limit  in  both  width  and  height.  This 
engine  weighs  125  tons  and  its  tender  weighs  70  tons.  The  tender 
alone  weighs  seventeen  times  as  much  as  the  heaviest  locomotive 


88  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

that  competed  in  the  famous  Rainhill  contest.  The  engine  and 
tender  together  weigh  about  thirty  per.  cent,  more  than  the  entire  train 
known  as  the  Empire  State  Express,  the  fastest  train  on  the  New 
York  Central  railroad.  Its  boiler  is  7  feet,  4  inches  in  diameter  at 
the  smallest  part,  and  in  it  there  are  406  tubes  each  2  ^  inches  in 
diameter,  the  total  heating  surface  being  no  less  than  3805  square 
feet.  The  weight  and  power  of  the  engine  are  well  shown  by  the 
main  driving  journals,  10  inches  in  diameter  and  13  inches  long, 
while  the  main  crank  pin  is  8  inches  long  and  has  a  diameter  of  7^ 
inches.  These  figures  give  some  idea  of  the  strain  to  be  made  upon 
them.  The  cylinders  are  24  inches  in  diameter,  and  the  piston  has 
a  32-inch  stroke.  The  piston  rods  are  4^  inches  in  diameter. 

A  horse  traveling  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour  on  a  level  road 
can  exert  25  pounds  of  tractive  force.  This  engine  can  exert  a  draw- 
bar pull  of  56,300  pounds,  or  enough  to  pull  7847  tons  of  freight  on 
a  straight  and  level  track  ten  miles  an  hour.  If  the  load  this  engine 
can  haul  were  put  in  good  four-wheeled  vehicles  on  the  best  level 
ordinary  .road,  it  would  require  28,563  horses  traveling  at  the  same 
rate  of  speed  on  the  best  macadam  roads  under  the  best  conditions. 

If  the  horses  required  to  do  the  work  of  this  single  locomotive 
were  hitched  two  abreast,  allowing  eight  feet  for  the  length  of  each 
team,  they  would  reach  21.638  miles.  Allowing  one  driver  to  each 
four  horses,  as  in  artillery,  there  would  be  .required  7140  men  to 
drive  this  great  team.  The  locomotive  is  handled  by  two  men. 
Small  wonder  that  improvements  in  transportation  between  1870 
and  1893  made  wheat  20  cents  per  bushel  cheaper  in  New  York  city. 

Trevithick's  first  engine  had  a  speed  of  about  five  miles  an  hour, 
Stephenson's  "Rocket"  attained  twenty-four  and  a  quarter  miles, 
Baldwin's  "Old  Ironsides"  thirty  miles,  and  the  "Governor  Paine" 
of  the  Central  Vermont  sixty  miles  an  hour.  Man's  "  iron  horse,  " 
given  its  drink  of  water  and  the  service  of  its  black  slave,  coal,  has 


POWER. 


89 


annihilated  distance  for  him.      The  following  were,   at  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  world's  best  records:  — 

Fast  Schedules.  Table  showing  the  regular  schedule  time  of 
some  of  the  fastest  short  distance  trains  in  the  world.  They  rarely 
fall  short  of  the  schedule,  and  sometimes  exceed  it. 


NAME    OF    ROAD 

FROM 

TO 

DISTANCE 

MILES 

AN   HOUR 

Phil.  &  Read.  R.  R. 

Camden 

Atlantic  City 

55K 

66.6 

n     «      n          « 

ii 

a         « 

SS/2 

66.6 

Pennsylvania  R.  R. 

«( 

"          " 

59 

64-3 

«                « 

« 

«  <          <  « 

59 

64-3 

Midi 

Morceux 

Bordeaux  (Controle) 

67^ 

61.6 

Pennsylvania  R.  R. 

Camden 

Atlantic  City 

59 

61.0 

Phil.  &  Read.  R.  R. 

" 

«          « 

55^ 

60.5 

tt     <  t       «          « 

Atlantic  City 

Camden 

55^ 

60.5 

<t     «       1  1          « 

«          <« 

" 

55^ 

60.5 

Nord 

Paris 

Amiens 

81% 

60.5 

L.  &  S.  W.  R. 

Dorchester 

Wareham 

15 

60.  i 

«           « 

<  < 

" 

15 

60.1 

Pennsylvania  R.  R. 

Camden 

Atlantic  City 

59 

60.0 

"                " 

« 

«           « 

59 

60.0 

Caledonian  R.  R. 

Forfar 

Perth 

32/2 

59.1 

Midi 

Morceux 

Dax       . 

^A 

58.2 

" 

«  < 

Bordeaux  (Controle) 

67% 

58.1 

Orleans 

Orleans 

Tours 

69^ 

58.1 

« 

Angouleme 

Bordeaux 

87^ 

57.6 

« 

Bordeaux 

Angouleme 

87^ 

57.6 

Nord 

Paris 

St.  Quentin 

95^ 

57-4 

Orleans 

Angouleme 

Poitiers 

7oX 

57-0 

Nord 

Amiens 

Calais  Pier 

104 

57-2 

N.  Y.  C.  &  H.  R.  R.  R. 

Syracuse 

Rochester 

80 

57-1 

Pennsvlvania  R.  R. 

Atlantic  City 

Camden 

59 

57-0 

«                 « 

«          « 

<  < 

59 

57.Q 

«                                   <  C 

«          « 

" 

59 

57-0 

Orleans 

Poitiers 

Angouleme 

7<>X 

57-0 

Phil.  &  Read.  R.  R. 

Mass.  Ave. 

Camden 

56.8 

56.8 

Caledonian  R.  R. 

Stirling 

Perth 

33 

56.5 

Phil.  &  Read.  R.  R. 

Atlantic  City 

Camden 

55^ 

56.4 

Nord 

Longuean 

Paris        . 

79 

56.4 

Midi 

Dax 

Bayonne 

3i 

56.3 

" 

Bayonne 

Dax 

3i 

56.3 

Nord 

Arras 

Longuean 

4i# 

56.2 

Orleans 

Angouleme 

Poitiers 

7oX 

56.2 

Midi 

Morceux 

Bordeaux 

67^ 

56.2 

M 

Bordeaux 

Morceux 

67^ 

56.2 

Orleans 

Poitiers 

Tours 

62/2 

56.0 

9o 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


The  number  of  trains  scheduled  for  53,  54,  and  55  miles  per  hour 
is  too  large  to  be  included  in  the  list.  France  easily  makes  the  best 
showing  in  the  number  of  high  speed  trains.  The  French  Northern 
railroad  alone  runs  45  trains  daily  at  an  average  speed,  including 
stops,  of  over  50  miles  an  hour,  and  ten  of  these  are  scheduled  at 
from  54  to  60  miles  an  hour.  France  has  in  this  list  nineteen, 
United  States  sixteen,  and  Great  Britain  four.  German  government 
regulations  forbid' a  speed  of  more  than  56  miles  an  hour,  but  it  is 
doubtful  if  a  German  train  could  violate  the  regulations  if  it  tried. 
Their  fastest  trains  run  between  Wittenberg  and  Hamburg  at  the 
rate  of  52  miles  an  hour,  between  Stendal  and  Hanover  at  50  miles 
ari  hour,  and  between  Berlin  and  Bitterfield  at  47  miles  an  hour. 

The  following  is  the  schedule  time  of  the  fastest  long  distance 
trains  in  the  world  :  — 


TRAIN 

ROAD 

FROM 

TO 

Sud  Express 

Orleans  &  Midi 

Paris 

Bayonne 

Empire  State 
Express 

N.  Y.  C.  &'   I 
H.R.R.R.      } 

N.  York 

Buffalo 

v- 

Gt   N    fr  N     > 

East  Coast 

\jr  L  •   1>  •   OL    1>I  •       f 

E.  Railways   ) 

London 

Edinburgh 

L.  &  N.  W.    ) 

andCaledo'n  C 

London 

Glasgow 

Railways         \ 

440 


393^ 


401^ 


8  59 
8  15 

7  45 

8  oo 


STOPS         MILES 
PER  HOUR 

6        54.13 
4        53-33 


50.77 


50.18 


The  Empire  State  Express  has  to  contend  with  numerous  sharp 
curves  and  heavy  grades.  In  addition  to  its  regular  schedule  of  four 
full  stops  and  slackened  speed  through  the  city  limits,  it  has  twenty- 
eight  regular  slow-downs  at  other  points  and  is  frequently  checked  at 
grade  crossings  or  drawbridges,  yet  it  almost  invariably  pulls  into 
Buffalo  on  time.  It  was  helping  to  draw  this  train  that  engine  No. 
999  made  itself  famous.  This  engine  weighs  about  62  tons,  works 
at  a  steam  pressure  of  190  pounds  per  square  inch,  has  four  driving 
wheels  86  ^J  inches  in  diameter,  steam  cylinders  19  by  24  inches.  It 
was  shown  at  Chicago  and  that  year  made  a  record  of  a  mile  at  the 


POWER.  91 

rate  of  102  miles  per  hour.  Later,  it  is  said  to  have  run  at  the  rate 
of  112  miles  an  hour,  the  highest  speed  yet  attained,  but  the  latter 
record  is  not  universally  accepted. 

July  i,  1898,  train  No.  25,  engine  No.  1028  of -the  Philadelphia 
and  Reading  railroad,  running  from  Atlantic  City  to  Camden,  N.  J., 
drawing  five  cars  and  carrying  201  passengers,  made  an  average 
speed  of  81.8  miles  per  hour  for  45  miles,  82.8  miles  per  hour  for  36 
miles,  and  ran  one  mile  in  41  seconds,  a  speed  of  87.8  miles  per 
hour.  A  copy  of  the  train  dispatcher's  sheet  shows  that  for  the 
month  of  August,  1898,  the  same  train,  with  an  average  weight  of 
207.7  tons  and  carrying  an  average  of  215  passengers,  ran  for  the 
whole  month  at  an  average  rate  of  speed  of  71  miles  an  hour. 
Engine  No.  1028  was  built  by  the  Baldwin  Locomotive  Works  and 
is  fitted  with  Vauclain  compound  cylinders. 

Locomotive  No.  564  of  the  Lake  Shore  and  Michigan  Southern 
railroad,  drawing  a  train  weighing  152^  tons,  ran  for  part  of  the 
distance  between  Chicago  and  Buffalo  at  the  rate  of  92.3  miles  an 
hour,  eight  miles  at  85.44  miles  an  hour,  thirty-three  miles  at  80.6 
miles  an  hour,  and  eighty-six  miles  at  72.92  miles  an  hour. 

A  Vauclain  compound  locomotive  on  the  Northern  railroad  of 
France  running  between  Paris  and  St.  Quentin,  a  distance  of  95^ 
miles,  drew  a  108  ton  train  the  whole  trip  at  an  average  of  67.4 
miles  per  hour.  For  50  miles  of  the  trip  the  average  rate  was 
75  miles  per  hour. 

An  Experiment  in  Speed.  Frederick  U.  Adams,  having  made  a 
study  of  fast  trains,  persuaded  the  officials  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
railroad  to  fit  six  cars,  for  a  special  trial,  from  the  tender  to  the 
other  end  of  the  train.  Great  care  was  taken  to  keep  the  surface  as 
free  from  projections  as  possible.  The  windows  were  set  even  with 
the  car  sides  and  the  car  sides  were  covered  with  matched  sheathing 
reaching  almost  to  the  rails.  The  sheathing  was  laid  horizontally 


92  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN   MECHANISM. 

instead  of  vertically  that  the  cracks  in  it  might  offer  less  resistance 
to  the  air.  The  vestibules  between  the  cars  were  carried  out  even 
with  the  car  sides.  The  train  weighed  170  tons,  was  drawn  by  a  70- 
ton  engine,  and  made  the  trip  from  Baltimore  to  Washington,  in- 
cluding one  slow-down,  in  37^2  minutes.  One  mile  was  made  in  40 
seconds,  two  miles  in  81  seconds,  four  and  one-half  miles  at  the 
rate  of  85  miles  an  hour.  A  grade  seven  miles  in  length,  rising  forty 
feet  to  the  mile,  was  ascended  at  the  rate  of  78.6  miles  an  hour. 
The  last  five  miles  of  down  grade  from  Alexander  Junction  to 
Trinidad  was  made  in  two  minutes  and  fifty-five  seconds,  a  rate  of 
102.8  miles  an  hour.  Had  the  train  been  drawn  by  some  of  the 
famous  engines  these  figures  might  have  been  exceeded. 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  GAS  ENGINE. 

Soon  after  the  discovery  of  the  piston,  attempts  were  made  to 
employ  it  for  other  powers  than  steam.  Huyghens  (1629-1695), 
famous  for  his  early  advocacy  of  the  undulatory  theory  of  light, 
tried  to  utilize  the  explosive  force  of  gunpowder  as  early  as  1680. 
Illuminating  gas  was  later  tried  by  many. 

In  1799  Le  Bon,  a  clever  French  artisan,  patented  a  gas  engine. 
Considering  the  condition  of  the  general  mechanic  arts  of  that  time 
it  was  an  excellent  one.  It  employed  a  piston  and  cylinder,  took 
illuminating  gas  from  a  reservoir,  mixed  it  with  atmospheric  air  and 
exploded  it  by  means  of  an  electric  spark  on  alternate  sides  of  its 
piston.  His  engine  was  automatic  and  theoretically  all  right  but  the 
high  price  of  illuminating  gas  and  the  difficulties  of  generating 
electricity  rendered  his  engine  impracticable  from  a  financial  point. 

In  1860  Lenoir  obtained  a  French  patent  for  practically  the  same 
engine,  but  it  used  100  cubic  feet  of  gas  per  horse-power-hour.  As 
gas  for  the  test  cost  about  $2  per  thousand  feet,  and  coal  $6  a  ton, 
the  fuel  for  the  gas  engine  cost  several  times  as  much  as  the  fuel  to 
do  the  same  work  by  steam. 


POWER.  93 

A  Parisian  inventor,  Hugon,  brought  out  an  engine  with  an  im- 
provement on  Barnett's  idea  of  lighting  the  gas  from  a  flame.  He 
introduced  a  jet  of  water  into  the  cylinder  to  be  turned  into  steam 
by  the  explosion.  Hugon's  engine  was  slightly  more  economical 
than  Lenoir's. 

In  1867  Otto  and  Langen  of  Cologne  exhibited  at  the  Paris  ex- 
hibition a  gas  engine  which  consumed  38  cubic  feet  of  gas  per  horse- 
power-hour, and  was  intolerably  noisy.  The  cost  of  fuel  was  still  too 
high. 

Brayton  in  1872  patented  a  gas  engine,  or,  more  strictly  speaking, 
a  hot  air  engine,  for  he  used  largely  the  expansive  force  of  hot  air. 
This  was  18  per  cent,  more  economical  than  the  Otto  and  Langen 
engine  and  worked  without  any  of  the  distracting  noise  of  the  latter. 

In  1876  Otto  brought  out  a  new  engine  in  which  was  embodied 
the  famous  "Otto  cycle"  (a  definite  series  of  motions  constantly 
repeated),  the  method  in  general  use  to-day.  It  was  found  that  if  the 
gas  and  air  were  subjected  to  a  heavy  pressure  and  then  exploded, 
the  resulting  force  was  much  greater  than  under  less  pressure.  The 
essential  feature  of  the  Otto  cycle  is  the  application  of  this  principle. 
It  was  advocated  by  Barnett  in  1838,  tried  by  several,  and  success- 
fully applied  by  Otto  in  1876. 

How  Gas  Engines  Work.  The  explosive  charge  in  a  gas  en- 
gine cannot  be  exploded  as  often  as  the  piston  in  a  steam  engine 
moves.  In  a  gas  engine  the  propelling  power  comes  in  one  shock  and 
not  a  steady  pressure.  Heavy  fly  wheels  are  used  which,  set  in  motion 
by  the  energy  of  the  shock  of  an  explosion,  continue  to  revolve  until 
the  succeeding  explosion.  There  are  four  piston  strokes  to  each 
cycle.  This  means  two  revolutions  of  the  fly  wheel  to  each  explo- 
sion. The  cycle  starts  with  the  explosion  of  a  charge  of  mixed  gas 
and  air  in  the  cylinder.  (See  diagram.)  This  drives  the  piston 
forward.  The  energy  imparted  to  the  fly  wheel  revolves  the  machin- 


94 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


Tor  ward. 
Explosion  Stroke. 


ery  and  carries  the  piston  back  on  the  return  stroke.  On  its  back- 
ward stroke  the  waste  gases  are  driven  out  of  the  explosion  chamber. 
The  continuous  revolution  of  the  fly  wheel  carries  the  piston  forward 
and,  during  the  forward  stroke,  a  fresh  explosive  charge  is  admitted 

into  the  cylinder.  The  piston 
again  returns  and  this  time 
compresses  the  explosive 
charge  to  the  desired  point, 
when  it  is  ignited  and  drives 
the  piston  forward  again  on  a 

new  cycle.      Various  means  of 
Compres siry  Stroke.  * "" 


Exhaust  Stroke. 


Ch  drying  <5trol<e. 


How  GAS  ENGINES  WORK. 


igniting  the  charge  have  been 

_     ,     .      c,          used:    first,  an  electric  spark; 
Explosion  Stroke 

next,  burning  gas  jets  covered 
by  slide  valves;  then,  a  rod 
heated  by  friction  and  the  force  of  the  explosion  to  such  a  high  tem- 
perature that  it  would  explode  the  incoming  charge.  Recent  prac- 
tice has  returned  to  the  electric  spark. 

A  very  sensitive  governor  of  one  of  the  ordinary  types  regulates 
the  speed  by  either  limiting  the  amount  of  the  charge  admitted  or 
varying  the  frequency  of  the  explosions  to  meet  the  demand  for 
power.  It  does  it  so  accurately  that  in  an  engine  of  130  horse-power 
working  at  a  speed  of  180  revolutions  per  minute  it  is  impossible  for 
the  speed  to  vary  more  than  one  and  one  half  per  cent,  either  above 
or  below  the  required  speed,  and  under  actual  working  conditions  it 
seldom  varies  so  much  as  one  half  per  cent,  all  together.  The  heavy 
fly  wheels  steady  the  action  of  the  engine  and  materially  aid  the 
governor  in  its  work. 

Plants  which  require  much  power  can  connect  two,  three,  or  four 
engines  to  one  shaft  and  so  arrange  their  explosions  that  they  will 
follow  each  other  in  regular  succession,  thus  giving  a  more  even  im- 


A 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


POWER.  95 


pulse  to  the  machinery.  By  using  four  engines  so  "compounded," 
an  impulse  can  be  imparted  to  the  shaft  at  each  stroke,  instead  of  at 
every  fourth  stroke,  as  in  the  single  engine. 

Gas  Engines  are  of  Two  General  Types  :  the  single  acting,  in 
which  the  power  is  applied  on  only  one  side  of  the  piston  ;  the  dou- 
ble acting,  in  which  the  force  is  applied  on  each  side  of  the  piston. 
The  latter  are  more  than  twice  as  powerful. 

The  gas  at  the  time  of  its  explosion  in  the  cylinder  is  heated  to 
about  1800  degrees  Fahrenheit.  The  waste  gases  when  they  are 
expelled  from  the  cylinder  have  a  temperature  of  about  1200  degrees, 
so  the  engine  turns  about  600  degrees  of  heat  into  work.  The  com- 
pression of  the  gas  generates  so  much  heat  that  sometimes  'it  ignites 
before  the  proper  time  has  arrived.  However,  this  has  been  reme- 
died, until  even  in  small  engines  running  at  400  revolutions  per  min- 
ute there  is  seldom  a  premature  ignition,  although  the  piston  when 
working  reaches  a  temperature  little  short  of  a  red  heat. 

The  high  temperature  within  the  cylinder  presents  some  difficul- 
ties in  operation  and  lubrication  is  difficult,  for  the  heat  turns  some 
lubricants  into  acids  which  have  a  destructive  effect  on  the  pistons 
and  cylinder.  Metals  wear  fast  when  heated  so  hot  and  the  packing 
requires  more  attention  than  in  the  steam  engine,  but  the  gas  engine 
has  many  features  which  commend  it. 

Advantages  of  Gas  Engine.  The  gas  engine  uses  its  fuel 
through  a  wider  range  of  temperature  than  the  steam  engine,  and  so 
is  more  efficient  both  in  theory  and  in  practice  (see  Efficiency  of 
Steam  Engine),  and  even  a  10  horse-power  engine  is  fairly  econom- 
ical. The  gas  engine  can  be  started  at  a  moment's  notice,  it  requires 
no  boilers,  no  firemen,  little  skilled  attendance  and  can  use  any 
volatile  hydrocarbon,  such  as  petroleum  or  gasoline.  In  using  oil  it 
is  usually  first  turned  into  spray  and  the  spray  into  gas  by  the  heat 
within  the  cylinder,  Gasoline  vaporizes  easily  when  heated,  so  is 


g6  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

instantly  available.  When  gas,  oil,  or  gasoline  are  used  there  are  no 
ashes  to  be  removed,  no  chimney  giving  off  disagreeable  gases,  and 
the  space  occupied  and  the  weight  of  the  boiler  and  furnace  are  saved 
and  can  be  used  for  other  purposes. 

When  the  gas  engine  was  first  introduced  extravagant  claims 
were  made  for  it  that  were  never  realized,  but  the  limit  of  its  im- 
provements has  not  yet  been  reached. 

Of  the  gases  ordinarily  used  for  fuel  natural  gas  or  marsh  gas 
stands  highest  in  heat  units  and  is  almost  ideal  for  use  in  gas  en- 
gines. Coal  gas,  which  comes  next,  contains  about  30  per  cent,  of 
marsh  gas  with  twice  as  much  hydrogen.  Water  gas  is  formed 
by  bringing  a  jet  of  steam  into  contact  with  a  fiercely  burning  body 
of  coke  or  coal.  The  intense  heat  separates  the  hydrogen  and  oxy- 
gen in  the  steam,  which  combines  with  the  carbon  in  the  coal  to  form 
gas.  Water  gas  has  less  heat  units  than  coal  gas,  but  is  a  good  con- 
veyer of  heat.  The  heat  power  of  gases  measured  by  carbon  stands 
as  follows:  pure  hydrogen,  4.25;  marsh  gas,  2.53;  coal  gas,  1.71; 
water  gas,  0.59.  The  gas  engine  has  given  a  wonderful  impetus  to 
the  manufacture  of  fuel  gas. 

Some  time  and  fuel  are  required  to  "  get  up  steam  "  in  a  steam 
engine,  and  if  it  is  stopped  for  a  short  time  the  consumption  of  coal 
and  the  time  of  the  fireman  continue,  but  when  a  gas  engine  stops 
there  is  no  further  waste.  Since  the  gas  engine  is  furnace,  boiler,  en- 
gine, and  condenser  all  in  itself,  there  is  less  loss  from  radiation  than 
with  steam  power.  A  gas  engine  can  burn  almost  anything  from 
the  waste  gases  of  blast  furnaces  to  pure  hydrogen  gas,  including  in 
its  range  oil  and  gasoline,  and  it  works  well  with  fuel  gas,  which  can 
be  produced  very  cheaply. 

A  60  horse-power  gas  engine  at  Chelsea,  England,  burning  fuel 
gas,  tested  for  two  days  used  .615  pounds  of  anthracite  coal  and 
.147  pounds  of  coke,  or  .762  pounds  of  fuel  for  a  horse-power- 


POWER.  97 

hour.      The    best   steam    power   practice   is   one  pound    of    coal  per 
horse-power-hour. 

A  Crossley  gas  engine  rated  at  only  10  horse-power  developed 
24^  indicated  horse-power,  on  14.32  cubic  feet  of  Manchester  coal 
gas  per  horse-power-hour.  The  gas  engine  is  not  yet  a  satisfactory 
solution  of  the  power  problem,  but  it  gives  the  greatest  efficiency  yet 
attained. 

USES  OF  COMPRESSED  AIR. 

The  expression  "light  as  air"  is  misleading.  The  bicycle  rider 
realizes  the  resistance  of  even  a  head  wind,  and  its  power  in  motion 
is  utilized  by  the  application  of  sails  to  ships,  while  the  destructive 
force  of  rapidly  moving  bodies  of  air  is  evinced  by  the  power  of  cy- 
clones and  tornadoes.  Light  as  it  apparently  is,  this  envelope  rests 
upon  the  earth  with  a  pressure  at  sea  level  of  14.7  pounds  per  square 
inch,  and  12.387  cubic  feet  of  air  actually  weigh  one  pound. 

The  thickness  of  the  atmosphere  has  not  been  definitely  deter- 
mined. Its  action  at  twilight  shows  that  it  will  reflect  light  at  a 
height  not  to  exceed  45  miles.  Meteors  entering  the  atmosphere 
may  begin  to  burn  at  a  distance  of  100  miles,  and  the  phenomena  of 
the  aurora  borealis  seem  to  indicate  some  sort  of  a  continuity  to  the 
height  of  even  300  miles  or  more. 

Air  is  essentially  elastic,  yielding  under  pressure  and  occupying 
less  space,  while  the  instant  the  pressure  is  removed  it  returns  to  its 
original  volume.  The  idea  of  compressed  air  is  usually  associated  in 
the  popular  mind  with  some  complex  mechanical  operation,  but 
nothing  is  simpler,  as  may  be  noted  in  its  common  use  in  the  bicycle 
tire  and  its  compression  by  the  bicycle  pump.  Fanning  a  fire  with 
the  human  breath  was  probably  the  first  application  of  compressed 
air  in  the  industrial  arts.  From  this  it  has  grown  until  a  recent  cat- 
alogue of  compressed  air  tools  and  machinery  enumerates  32 7  distinct 


98          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

uses  for  which  it  is  now  employed,  and  these  range  from  spreading 
whitewash  to  raising  a  sunken  battleship. 

Compressed  air  does  not  differ  in  its  chemical  properties  from 
atmospheric  air,  but  when  compressed  the  heat  which  it  carries  is 
forced  into  a  smaller  volume  and  the  temperature  rises.  This  is 
noticeable  even  in  the  rapid  working  of  a  bicycle  pump.  Larger 
pumps,  called  air  compressors,  driven  by  steam  power,  usually  have 
a  cylinder  surrounded  with  a  water  jacket  to  carry  away  the  heat. 
Compressed  air  released  is  quick  to  seize  upon  heat  from  anything 
with  which  it  may  come  in  contact,  to  make  up  for  that  of  which  it 
has  been  divested.  This  principle  is  applied  in  making  liquid  air  and 
is  one  of  the  things  that  makes  the  use  of  compressed  air  in  mines, 
the  hulls  of  ships,  etc.,  valuable  as  a  means  of  reducing  temperature. 

Advantages  in  the  Use  of  Compressed  Air.  Space  will  permit 
but  a  brief  mention  of  some  of  the  uses  made  of  compressed  air,  for 
it  ranges  from  furnishing  a  cushion  for  an  invalid  to  a  Button  pneu- 
matic balance  lock  capable  of  lifting  five  or  six  canal  boats.  In  ordi- 
nary practice  a  steam  engine  is  used  to  drive  an  air  pump  (air 
compressor)  which  forces  air  into  a  reservoir  and  holds  it  there  at 
any  required  pressure  until  used.  To  obtain  a  high  pressure  it  has 
been  found  more  economical  to  divide  the  work  into  steps,  each  rais- 
ing it  higher  than  its  predecessor,  and  delivering  it  to  a  cylinder 
(inter-cooler)  where  it  is  partially  divested  of  its  heat  before  deliver- 
ing it  to  the  next  compressor.  No  additional  power  is  gained  by 
using  air  in  place  of  steam.  The  chief  advantages  are :  economy, 
if  the  work  to  be  performed  is  interrupted ;  convenience,  the  ease 
with  which  it  may  be  carried  to  places  difficult  of  access,  as  beneath 
a  freight  car,  or  underneath  the  keel  of  a  ship ;  its  special  fitness,  as 
for  work  in  mines,  where  it  aids  in  ventilating  and  reducing  the  tem- 
perature. 

A  flexible   rubber  hose  has   made   it  possible  for  a  workman  to 


POWER.  99 

carry  about  with  him  a  pressure  greater  than  that  at  which  Watt 
dared  run  his  steam  engines.  Many  branches  of  work  formerly  done 
with  the  hand  hammer  are  now  performed  with  a  pneumatic  ham- 
mer. 

The  Pneumatic  Hammer.  In  the  hammer  shown  in  the  accom- 
panying illustration,  when  the  trigger  is  pressed  the  air  from  the  hose 
passes  through  the  channel  along  the  side  of  the  hammer  and  enters 
the  pear-shaped  cavity  within  the  piston.  Un- 
der its  impulse  the  piston  rushes  downward 
and  strikes  a  blow  upon  the  hammer  head, 
but  at  that  instant  the  piston  ports  are  brought 
opposite  openings  into  the  atmosphere  and 
the  air  within  the  piston  escapes.  Meanwhile, 
the  compressed  air,  not  being  able  to  enter  the 
piston,  presses  against  the  shoulder  running 
around  it  and  forces  it  back  to  the  position 
shown  in  the  cut,  when  air  once  more  enters 

into  the  cavity  of  the  piston  and  the  blow  is  TH£  PNEUMATIC  HAMMER. 
repeated.,  A  heavy  or  a  light  blow  may  be 

delivered  at  the  option  of  the  operator,  varying  with  the  amount  of 
air  admitted. 

For  cutting  designs  in  stone  or  marble  a  light,  short,  quick  stroke 
may  be  needed.  For  this  class  there  is  a  hammer  with  a  light  piston 
and  a  stroke  of  about  half  an  inch  in  length,  capable  of  delivering 
7500  blows  a  minute.  Another  hammer  with  a  heavier  piston,  a 
longer  stroke  and  slower,  will  deliver  1800  blows  a  minute  and  suc- 
cessfully "  upset "  and  "  head  "  a  rivet  i%  inches  in  diameter. 
These  hammers  can  be  used  for  a  great  variety  of  work,  such  as 
riveting,  calking,  removing  "scale,"  cutting,  carving,  and  dressing 
all  kinds  of  metal  and  stone  work. 

Pneumatic   vs.   Hand    Hammer.     A  man  cannot  average  for  a 


100  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

whole  day's  work  more  than  fifteen  blows  a  minute  with  a  hand 
hammer.  The  pneumatic  hammer  places  7S°°  blows  a  minute  at  his 
disposal,  so  the  amount  of  work  turned  out  depends  mostly  upon 
the  skill  of  the  operator,  for  the  speed  of  the  stroke  is  always  more 
than  sufficient  to  meet  any  demand.  Where  pneumatic  hammers 
are  used  they  regularly  do  the  work  formerly  requiring  six,  eight,  or 
ten  men  and  at  about  one  quarter  the  cost.  This  leaves  free  three  or 
four  men  to  take  up  some  other  kind  of  work  and  increases  the  pro- 
ductive power  of  the  industrial  army. 

Pneumatic  hammers  are  extensively  used  for  the  riveting  work  of 
bridges,  tanks,  boilers,  ships,  and  skeletons  of  buildings.  They  en- 
able the  power  to  be  brought  to  the  work  without  the  trouble  of 
moving  the  work  to  the  power.  Suppose  a  rivet  to  be  driven  in  a 
ship's  deck :  it  is  heated,  thrust  through  the  hole,  the  pneumatic 
hammer  is  rested  upon  it,  the  trigger  pressed,  and  almost  before  the 
hammer  can  be  removed  the  rivet  is  upset  and  headed.  A  similar 
instrument  armed  with  a  chisel  instead  of  a  hammer  head  removes 
the  superfluous  metal,  and  an  instant's  work  with  the  hammer 
smooths  the  surface.  The  hammer  will  do  the  work  of  ten  men. 

Another  form  of  air  valve,  rather  too  complicated  to  be  described 
here,  will  impart  rotary  motion  and  so  turn  bits  and  drills  to  make 
holes  in  wood,  steel,  or  rocks. 

Castings  fresh  from  the  foundry  are  rough.  Hand  labor  was 
formerly  employed  to  smooth  them.  A  current  of  compressed  air 
propelling  a  blast  of  sand  will  do  the  work  of  from  six  to  ten  men 
and  do  it  better,  for  it  will  reach  into  nooks  and  crannies  that  could 
not  be  reached  by  a  tool  and  it  can  be  operated  by  a  small  boy.  A 
pneumatic  machine  for  cutting  off  stay  bolts  in  boiler  work  can  be 
easily  managed  by  one  man.  It  will  measure  accurately  and  cut 
1800  bolts  an  hour,  while  45  bolts  an  hour  would  be  fast  work  for 
hand  labor.  The  sand  blast  may  be  used  to  clean  the  hulls  of  steel 
ships  when  in  dry  dock  and  to  remove  paint. 


POWER. 


101 


Painting  and  Sweeping  by  Compressed  Air.  Nearly  all  large 
jobs  of  painting,  like  bridges,  tanks,  warehouses,  etc.,  may  be  quickly 
and  easily  performed  by  spraying  the  paint  with  a  pneumatic  ma- 
chine. Greater  protection  can  be  given,  for  the  paint  by  this  means 
can  be  driven  somewhat  into  the  wood  and  labor  that  is  less  skilled 
may  be  employed. 

A  hose  pipe  and  a  current  of  air  makes  the  best  possible  broom 
to  sweep  out  a  passenger  car,  for  it  will  reach  cracks  and  corners  not 
accessible  by  ordinary  means.  Garden  hose  is  made  over  an  iron 
bar.  When  ready  to  be  removed  if  an  attempt  were  made  to  pull  it 
off  it  would  be  ruined.  Compressed  air  turned  in  between  the  hose 
and  the  bar  stretches  it  slightly  and  it  can  be  removed  without  diffi- 
culty. Varieties  of  hose  are  now  made  that  can  sustain  a  pressure 
of  a  thousand  pounds  per  square  inch. 

Compressed  Air  in  Mining  and  Submarine  Operations.      Com- 
pressed air  is  an  ideal  application  of  power  in  mines  where  fire  damp 
is  present  in  any  quantity.      No 
sparks,   better  ventilation,    cool- 
ing   of    the  mine,   the    outgoing 
current  of  air  carried  with  it,  the 
smoke  of  blasts,  are  all  arguments 
in  its  favor. 

Submarine  operations  would 
be  impossible  without  the  use  of 
compressed  air.  The  diver  and 
the  navigator  of  the  submarine 
boat  both  depend  upon  it  to  furnish  the  oxygen  necessary  to  support 
life.  The  motive  power  of  the  Whitehead  torpedo  consists  of  a  cyl- 
inder containing  compressed  air  at  a  high  pressure.  Compressed  air, 
used  in  the  guns  of  the  cruiser  Vesuvius,  threw  its  dynamite  shells 
over  the  hills  at  the  entrance  to  Santiago  Harbor, 


SUBMARINE   USE  OF   PNEUMATIC  TOOLS. 


102  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

Compressed  air  is  used  in  raising  sunken  ships.  Great  casks 
placed  near  the  ships  are  allowed  to  fill  and  sink.  Cables  are  passed 
under  the  ships  and  made  fast  to  the  casks.  Water  is  then  forced 
out  of  the  casks  by  compressed  air,  so  lightening  them  that  they  are 
sometimes  able  to  lift  the  ship.  Another  method  is  to  place  col- 
lapsed air  bags  within  the  sunken  vessel  and  then  pump  them  full  of 
air.  These  displace  the  water  and  their  buoyant  force  may  enable 
the  ship  to  float. 

In  Australia  sheep  are  sheared  by  clippers  run  by  compressed  air 
motors,  and  one  man  can  shear  one  hundred  sheep  in  the  time  that 
would  be  required  to  shear  seventy  by  the  old  method. 

When  the  steamer  Paris  stuck  fast  upon  the  rocks  off  the  coast 
nearing  the  entrance  to  the  English  Channel,  divers  by  the  aid  of 
compressed  air  and  compressed  air  machinery  removed  15,000  cubic 
feet  of  rock  which  had  penetrated  her  side  and  held  her  fast.  When 
the  Americans  raised  the  sunken  Spanish  cruiser  Reina  Mercedes, 
compressed  air  drills  were  used  to  drill  more  than  three  hundred 
holes  below  the  water  line. 

Compressed  air  made  the  Westinghouse  air  brake  possible,  and 
curiously  enough  railroad  shops  have  been  most  forward  in  its  use. 
Probably  the  adoption  of  the  air  brake  and  the  necessity  of  air  com- 
pressors in  the  shops  to  test  them  led  naturally  to  the  use  of  air  for 
other  purposes. 

On  the  United  States  Monitor  "  Terror."  Compressed  air  is 
used  "  for  taking  up  the  recoil  of  the  guns  and  running  them  out  to 
battery  after  firing;  for  rotating  the  turrets;  for  elevating  and  de- 
pressing the  guns ;  for  all  the  movements  of  the  breech  plug  except 
locking  it;  for  working  the  telescopic  rammer;  for  blowing  out  the 
powder  gases  when  the  breech  is  opened  ;  for  picking  up  and  hoist- 
ing the  ammunition,  and  for  steering  the  ship." 

The  gases  escaping  from  the  chimneys  of  locomotives  would  soon 


POWER.  103 

render  the  atmosphere  in  long  tunnels  unendurable  if  it  were  not  for 
the  aid  of  compressed  air.  By  means  of  air  compressors  or  power- 
ful fans,  strong  currents  of  air  are  forced  through  and  the  tunnel 
ventilated. 

Figures  on  copper,  glass,  or  marble  are  quickly  and  inexpensively 
cut  by  the  use  of  the  sand  blast.  The  glass  may  be  covered  with  a 
coat  of  collodion,  gelatin,  or  wax,  and  the  figure  traced  upon  it,  re- 
moving the  covering  from  those  parts  that  are  to  be  cut  away  and 
leaving  the  raised  portion  protected  by  it.  The  sand  blast  is  then 
turned  upon  it  and  rapidly  cuts  away  all  exposed  portions  while  the 
elastic  coating  protects  the  other  parts.  Designs  in  large  numbers 
may  be  rapidly  and  cheaply  reproduced  by  making  a  pattern  or  tem- 
plet of  thin  sheet  rubber.  A  pane  of  glass  exposed  to  the  sand 
blast  is  quickly  obscured  and  turned  into  ground  glass  wherever  the 
blast  falls  upon  it. 

LIQUID   AIR. 

Within  a  comparatively  recent  time  the  attention  of  the  public 
has  been  drawn  to  the  startling  phenomena  of  liquid  air  and  the  pos- 
sibility of  its  being  harnessed  for  practical  work.  Air  was  first  liq- 
uefied in  1878  by  Cailletet  in  Paris  and  Pictet  in  Geneva,  but  only  in 
minute  quantities.  By  1886  Professor  Dewar  of  England  was  able 
to  produce  it  in  small  quantities  and  drew  it  off  into  an  open  vessel. 
In  1892  in  his  lectures  at  the  Royal  Institution  he  had  a  machine  that 
would  produce  a  pint  at  a  time.  It  is  now  easily  available  in  consid- 
erable quantities.  Charles  E.  Tripler  of  New  York  has  produced  it 
on  such  a  large  scale  that  it  can  be  carried  about  and  shown  at  pub- 
lic lectures.  The  possible  application  of  liquid  air  outside  of  the 
physical  laboratory  opens  up  such  an  unexplored  field  that  some  of 
the  most  enthusiastic  experimenters  have  been  led  to  claim  more  for 
it  than  they  have  been  able  to  substantiate.  It  is  accepted  as  a  law 
that  no  energy  can  be  created  or  destroyed.  How  absurd  then  to 


104  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

suppose  that  more  power  can  be  secured  from  the  expansive  force  of 
liquid  air  than  was  first  required  to  reduce  the  air  to  that  form!  It 
is  unfortunate  that  such  claims  have  apparently  been  made  for  it. 
Liquid  air  has  already  been  of  service  to  the  chemist.  By  its  aid, 
hydrogen  and  helium,  the  last  of  the  gases,  have  been  not  only  reduced 
to  liquids,  but  to  solids,  and  the  chemist  can  now  study  the  physical 
properties  of  matter  at  a  temperature  more  than  200°  below  the  zero 
of  Fahrenheit.  Argon,  a  gas  of  which  but  little  was  known,  has  by 
its  aid  been  separated  from  the  nitrogen  with  which  it  is  usually 
mixed,  and  its  properties  studied.  Fluorin,  a  substance  so  active 
that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  obtain  it  except  in  combinations, 
has  yielded  at  the  temperature  of  liquid  air,  and  may  now  be  studied 
by  the  chemist. 

A  Fascinating  Subject.  If  so  many  curious  and  marvelous  things 
can  be  done  with  liquid  air,  what  a  wide  field  of  possibilities  is 
opened  up  with  liquid  hydrogen !  This  subject  has  a  wonderful 
fascination  for  the  chemist,  who  strives  to  attain  absolute  zero  with 
something  of  the  zest  that  an  explorer  searches  for  the  frozen  pole. 
1  'This  subject  possesses  an  attraction  for  those  who  are  accustomed 
to  look  ahead,  remembering  that  the  laboratory  experiments  of  one 
day  and  generation  have  often  in  the  past  become  the  foundations 
of  great  industries.  It  took  three  quarters  of  a  century  for  Davy's 
electric  arc  to  develop  into  the  beginnings  of  commercial  arc  lighting, 
and  nearly  fifty  years  elapsed  after  Faraday's  brilliant  researches  in 
magnetic-electricity,  before  dynamos  became  a  part  of  engineering. 
Yet,  Faraday  had  built  a  primitive  dynamo,  and  its  reversed  form 
was  known  in  primitive  types  of  electric  motor.  Who  would  have 
supposed,  when  ammonia  gas  was  first  liquefied  by  pressure,  that 
before  the  close  of  the  century  companies  would  be  doing  business 
by  sending  it  about  in  pipes  for  refrigeration  ?  Yet,  such  is  the 
fact." 


POWER.  10$ 

Were  liquid  air  closely  confined  and  allowed  to  regain  the  tem- 
perature of  ordinary  air,  it  would  exert  a  pressure  of  about  12,000 
pounds  per  square  inch  on  the  walls  of  the  container.  Allowed  to 
expand  as  it  regained  its  heat,  it  would  occupy  a  volume  800  times 
as  great  as  it  occupied  in  the  liquid  form.  In  this  expansion  it  could 
do  1,900,000  foot  pounds  of  work  for  each  gallon  raised  to  a  tem- 
perature of  70°  Fahrenheit.  This  expanding  force,  used  in  an 
engine  which  could  turn  it  all  into  useful  work  in  one  hour,  would 
do  almost  one  horse-power-hour  of  work  (1,980,000  foot  pounds). 
Used  in  this  manner  it  would  be  a  heat  engine  reversed,  for  it  would 
work,  not  by  giving  up  its  heat,  as  steam  does,  but  by  taking  up 
heat.  Gravitation  makes  no  exception  in  the  case  of  liquid  air,  which 
has  to  pay  toll  in  the  form  of  friction  the  same  as  any  other  power, 
and  the  temperature  losses  of  liquid  air  are  greater  than  those  of 
steam.  Further,  to  prevent  the  freezing  of  pipes,  etc.,  heat  must  be 
used  with  it.  In  any  form  yet  devised  the  losses  amount  to  at  least 
50  per  cent.  A  gallon  then  would  do  only  half  a  horse-power-hour  of 
work.  That  is  not  all.  In  1898  it  required  15  horse-power-hours 
of  work  to  produce  a  gallon  of  liquid  air.  The  cost  of  its  production 
must  be  greatly  reduced  before  it  can  be  generally  employed  as  a 
motive  power,  for  coal  at  $3.00  per  ton,  economically  consumed,  will 
produce  a  horse-power-hour  for  one  fourth  of  a  cent.  In  other 
words,  it  will  do  work  enough  in  one  hour,  at  the  cost  of  one  fourth 
of  a  cent,  to  lift  an  ordinary  locomotive  10  or  12  feet. 

Great  credit  is  certainly  due  to  Professor  James  Dewar  for  re- 
searches in  the  liquefaction  of  gases.  The  first  ounce  of  liquid  air 
which  he  made  cost  no  less  than  $3000.  In  a  few  weeks  he  was  able 
to  make  it  for  $500  a  pint.  It  can  now  be  made  so  cheaply  that  the 
cost  is  no  longer  a  barrier  to  thorough  experimentation. 

In  Charles  E.  Tripler's  process  the  air  with  which  he  starts  is  not 
the  air  that  is  liquefied.  With  a  powerful  engine  and  air  compressor 


106  THE   MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

he  pumps  air  into  a  reservoir  till  the  pressure  is  between  100  and  150 
atmospheres.  (An  atmosphere  is  14.7  pounds  per  square  inch.)  Air 
is  drawn  from  the  reservoir  for  use  in  the  machinery,  and  constant 
pumping  keeps  up  a  high  pressure  in  the  reservoir.  The  liquefier  is 
a  crude  looking  affair  consisting  of  a  tall  cylinder  covered  with  heavy 
wrappings  of  felt  or  other  materials  that  are  poor  conductors  of  heat. 
At  the  base  of  the  cylinder,  resting  on  one  face,  is  a  metallic  drum, 
into  the  upper  face  of  which  are  screwed  a  large  number  of  vertical 
pipes  about  two  inches  in  diameter.  The  pipes  are  open  at  the  top 
and  the  contents  of  the  drum  can  be  drawn  off  by  a  faucet  at  the 
bottom.  Small  pipes  encircle  each  vertical  pipe.  The  sides  of  the 
small  pipes  nearest  the  large  one  are  full  of  minute  holes.  Com- 
pressed air  is  forced  through  the  holes  in  the  small  pipes  and  strikes 
in  little  jets  on  the  larger  pipe.  The  small  pipes  are  closed  at  the 
top  and  connected  at  the  bottom  with  a  pipe  leading  to  the  com- 
pressed air  reservoir.  If  air  is  heated  it  expands,  if  air  is  compressed 
it  radiates  its  heat  freely.  In  making  compressed  air  the  heat  is 
carried  away  by  means  of  water  flowing  through  water  jackets  sur- 
rounding the  cylinders.  The  compressed  air  from  the  reservoir, 
passing  through  the  small  pipes,  has  been  largely  divested  of  its  heat 
and,  striking  upon  the  vertical  pipe,  has  a  chance  to  expand  and 
takes  up  all  the  available  heat  within  the  vertical  pipe.  This  re- 
duces the  temperature  of  the  large  pipe  so  low  that  atmospheric  air 
entering  at  the  open  tops  of  the  vertical  pipes  is  deprived  of  its  heat 
and  liquefied  at  ordinary  atmospheric  pressure. 

Cost  of  Liquid  Air.  No  satisfactory  figures  are  available  as  to 
the  cost  of  producing  liquid  air.  Some  claim  it  can  be  done  for  a 
few  cents  a  gallon,  and  other  conservative  physicists  say  it  costs  five 
dollars  a  gallon. 

Liquid  air  may  be  drawn  off  into  dippers  and  buckets  and  poured 
in  the  same  manner  as  water  is  handled.  It  is  almost  as  much 


POWER. 


107 


colder  than  ice  as  ice  is  colder  than  molten  tin.      Upon  contact  with 

flesh  it  "burns"  like   hot  iron,  and   the   sores  from   it  are   obstinate 

and  require  a  long  time  to  heal.      The  hand   may  be  dipped   for  an 

instant   into  liquid  air  without  injury,  just  as  workmen  at  a  furnace 

dip  their  hands  in  molten  iron.      If  a  drop 

of  water  is  let  fall  upon  a  hot  stove,  it  gees    FAHRENHEIT  SCALE. 

skipping  about  without  touching  the  stove, 

because  the  heat  of  the  stove  turns  part  of  ^2l2  dee  --j-  Water  boils 

the  water  into  an  envelope  of  vapor.    When 

the  hand  of  the  workman  is  drawn  hurriedly 

through  the  molten   metal  the  heat  of  the  +32deg.., 

metal  vaporizes  the  moisture   in   the   hand      °  des- 

and  so  protects  the  tissues  from  direct  con-  ~4°  deg  f  Mercury  freezes' 

tact  with   the  metal.      When  the   hand    is 

dipped  hastily  into  liquid  air  it  is  protected 

by  an  envelope  of  vapor,  but  for  the  oppo--20"  deg.-f-  Alcohol  freezes. 

site  reason.      The  hand   is  as  much   hotter 

—300  deg.        Oxygen  boils. 

than   the   liquid   air  as  the    stove    is  hotter^*  de|f  5' 

than  the  drop   of   water,  so  the  heat  of  the 

Hydrogen  boils.    Low- 

hand   vaporizes  enough    air   to   temporarily-^  deg,  ..  S 


it. 


—461  deg 


Water  freezes. 
Fahrenheit's  zero. 


Prof.  Dewar's  abso- 
LANDMARKS  lute  zero.  Supposed 
OF  FAHREN-  temperature  of  in- 

HHIT  ScALE-    tersteiiar  space. 


Wonders  of  Liquid  Air.  Many  inter- 
esting  experiments  can  be  performed  with  this  substance,  which  is 
wonderful  only  because  we  are  used  to  seeing  it  in  an  entirely  differ- 
ent form.  With  it,  alcohol  can  be  made  into  an  icicle  in  a  few  sec- 
onds; mercury  can  be  frozen  and  used  as  a  hammer  to  drive  nails. 
Contained  in  a  teakettle,  it  will  boil  vigorously  when  placed  on  a 
block  of  ice,  for  ice  is  344°  hotter  than  liquid  air.  Haifa  pint  of 
liquid  air  will  boil  away  in  thirty  minutes.  No  method  has  yet  been 
devised  that  will  preserve  it  for  more  than  a  limited  time.  It  is  kept 
longest  when  surrounded  by  a  vacuum. 


108  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

Atmospheric  air  is  composed  roughly  of  four  fifths  nitrogen  and 
one  fifth  oxygen.  In  liquid  air  the  nitrogen  evaporates  the  more 
rapidly,  so  when  the  liquid  air  boils  the  nitrogen  passes  off  first  and 
the  remaining  portion  grows  relatively  richer  and  richer  in  oxygen, 
until  a  piece  of  steel  heated  red  and  thrust  into  the  liquid  will  burn 
vigorously.  To  render  this  experiment  more  striking,  an  operator 
often  pours  liquid  air  into  a  tapering  tin  cup,  holds  the  cup  in  water 
for  a  few  minutes,  when  a  coating  of  ice  is  quickly  frozen  around  it; 
the  ice  is  carefully  removed,  and  into  the  hole  that  inclosed  the  cup 
the  liquid  air  is  poured.  This  is  so  cold  that  it  prevents  the  ice  from 
melting,  and  when  the  nitrogen,  as  before,  has  been  evaporated  from 
this  cup  of  ice  the  steel  may  be  burned  in  the  remaining  oxygen. 
This  gives  an  exhibition  of  great  brilliancy  and  presents  the  strange 
spectacle  of  white  hot  heat  and  fierce  combustion  surrounded  by  a 
block  of  ice  without  melting  the  latter.  A  visitor  to  Mr.  Tripler's 
laboratory  says:  "  He  has  an  iron  tube  into  which  he  pours  about 
a  quart  of  liquid  air.  This  tube  serves  him  as  a  boiler,  being  heated, 
not  by  a  fire,  but  by  the  warm  air  of  his  laboratory,  whose  heat 
vaporizes  the  liquid  air.  This  boiler  is  then  connected  with  a  small 
steam  engine  cylinder,  which  is  operated  by  the  air  from  this  boiler, 
charged  with  liquid  air,  just  as  it  would  be  by  steam  from  a  boiler 
charged  with  water  and  heated  by  a  fire." 

Limitations  of  Liquid  Air.  The  plan  works  excellently,  and 
the  engine  runs  without  a  fault,  but  one  drawback  has  been  men- 
tioned; it  requires  more  work  to  make  the  liquid  air  than  the  air  can 
be  made  to  do.  The  difference  is  just  equal  to  the  amount  of  power 
required  to  run  all  the  necessary  machinery,  the  temperature  losses  in 
the  process,  and  the  direct  leakage  from  evaporation.  The  sum  of 
these  losses  represents  the  toll  that  the  machinery  and  material  ex- 
act in  payment  for  its  obliging  alteration  of  form  to  suit  the  whim 
of  man. 


POWER. 


IOQ 


A  small  waterfall  can  be  made  a  big  one  by  digging  a  pit  into 
which  the  water  may  fall,  but  to  keep  up  the  increased  power  the  pit 
must  be  pumped  dry.  The  water  in  falling  will  not  generate  power 
enough  to  both  lift  itself  out  of  the  pit  and  run  the  .machinery  by 
which  the  lifting  is  done ;  so  practically  the  pit  proves  a  distinct  loss 
instead  of  a  gain.  That  is  precisely  the  case  with  liquid  air.  Pay- 
ment in  full  must  be  made  for  any  power  obtained  from  Nature,  for 
she  never  has  "  bargain  days"  nor  "  clearance  sales  below  cost." 

POWER  FOR  MINES. 

All  mines  require  power  for  their  operation,  and  it  was  the  neces- 
sity of  the  English  mines  that  gave  birth  to  the  practical  steam 
engine.  This,  however,  although  generally  accepted  and  used  above, 
is  not  always  available  underneath  the  surface.  The  fire  from  the 
boilers  would  certainly  cause  explosions  in  some  mines,  and  ex- 
plosions are  frequent  enough  without  inviting  them.  The  water  of 
deep  mines  frequently  contains  matter  in  solution  that  is  deposited 
as  "  scale  "  within  the  tubes  of  a  boiler  and  so  renders  it  unfit  for 
use.  The  smoke  and  steam  would  interfere  with  ventilation  and  the 
latter  is  a  problem  that  has  to  be  carefully  worked  out,  for  without 
a  proper  air  supply  the  miner  can  do  little  work  and  the  better  the 
air  the  better  the  work  he  can  do.  These  objections  have  usually 
restricted  steam  power  to  use  on  the  surface. 

At  present  electricity  furnishes  the  cheapest  means  of  com- 
municating power  for  any  considerable  distance,  but  some  mines  are 
infested  with  fire  damp,  and  electric  wires  have  an  unpleasant  habit 
of  giving  off  sparks  when  things  do  not  go  to  suit  that  whimsical 
power.  One  such  spark  might  spread  ruin  and  destruction  to  the 
innermost  recesses  of  the  mine.  Electric  lighting  is  cheap,  and  with 
the  best  connections  there  is  little  liability  to  sparking.  It  has  no 
exposed  flame  and  does  not  consume  any  of  the  air  of  the  mine. 


IIO  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

But  there  is  the  constant  fear  that  a  globe  might  break  or  a  current 
cut  across  lots  (short  circuits)  and  the  fatal  sparking  occur. 

Compressed  air  is  free  from  the  defects  named  but  it  is  an  ex- 
pensive method  of  transmitting  power  and  the  temperature  losses 
and  leakages  are  considerable.  However,  it  has  advantages,  for  it 
takes  pure  air  just  where  it  is  most  needed,  deposits  it  at  the  work- 
ing face  and  aids  in  forcing  out  the  bad  air  from  the  mine. 

These  are  a  few  of  the  many  problems  with  which  the  mining 
engineer  has  to  wrestle.  The  three  methods  are  frequently  com- 
bined. The  power  is  generated  at  the  surface  by  immense  steam 
plants.  They  also  furnish  direct  power  for  running  and  hoisting  the 
surface  machinery.  Electric  currents  are  generated  and  carried  down 
the  shafts  to  the  level  where  electricity  is  to  be  used.  At  that  point 
in  the  mine  the  electric  energy  is  often  employed  to  drive  a  motor 
operating  an  air  compressor  and  compressed  air  is  carried  through 
flexible  hose  to  the  end  walls  and  used  by  the  workmen. 

Terrors  of  Old-Time  Mining.  Less  than  a  hundred  years  ago 
miners  went  about  bearing  in  their  caps  lighted  candles  without  any- 
thing inclosing  the  flame.  Brought  in  contact  with  fire  damp  (marsh 
gas,  CH4  )  disastrous  explosions  were  frequently  occasioned.  When 
fire  damp  constitutes  from  6  per  cent,  to  17  per  cent,  of  the  atmos- 
phere it  forms  a  dangerously  explosive  compound,  and  freshly  ex- 
posed coal  underground  often  gives  off  fire  damp  in  large  quantities, 
a  single  ton  of  anthracite  coal  emitting  more  than  500  cubic  feet. 

About  1815  Sir  Humphry  Davy  devised  the  safety  lamp,  which 
consists  of  a  flame  inclosed  within  a  wire  gauze  cylinder.  The  gauze 
prevents  explosions  by  absorbing  and  radiating  so  much  heat  that  it 
reduces  below  the  point  of  ignition  the  temperature  of  the  gases 
passing  outward  through  the  meshes.  A  lamp  so  protected  carried 
into  an  atmosphere  containing  from  3  per  cent,  to  6  per  cent,  of  fire 
damp  shows  its  presence  by  the  flame  growing  longer  and  smoky. 


POWER.  I  i  I 

In  a  higher  percentage  the  gas  may  penetrate  the  gauze,  ignite  at  the 
flame,  and  occupy  the  whole  position  within  the  gauze  cylinder.  If 
subjected  to  this  extra  heat  for  any  great  length  of  time  or  exposed 
to  a  draft,  the  gauze  becomes  red  hot  and  capable  of  producing  an 
explosion. 

Davy's  invention  robbed  mining  of  its  worst  terrors,  and  probably 
no  single  device  has  saved  so  many  lives,  for  prior  to  its  invention 
thousands  of  lives  were  annually  lost  in  the  mines  of  Great  Britain 
alone.  The  safety  lamp  enables  the  workman  to  pass  freely  through 
an  atmosphere  charged  with  fire  damp,  lacking  but  a  single  spark  to 
hurl  him  to  destruction.  Often  while  he  digs  the  coal  that  may 
furnish  the  cheery  fire  for  a  home  hundreds  of  miles  away,  death 
lurks  in  the  gloom  on  all  sides,  held  off  only  by  the  frail  wire  gauze 
surrounding  the  flame  of  his  lamp. 

Since  Davy's  time  man  has  labored  with  remarkable  success  to 
devise  methods  by  which  he  may  economically,  conveniently,  and 
safely  dispossess  Mother  Earth  of  her  mineral  treasures. 

ERICSSON'S  SUN  MOTOR. 

The  sun  is  the  source  of  all  heat  and  power.  Some  idea  of  the 
immense  heat  radiated  from  it  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that 
the  radiation  from  each  square  inch  of  its  surface  is  on  the  earth 
spread  over  46,561  square  inches,  and  even  when  thus  attenuated 
the  rays  gathered  within  a  small  sun  glass  are  hot  enough  to  almost 
instantly  scorch  the  flesh  or  set  fire  to  anything  inflammable. 

Langley  has  estimated  that  "  if  the  amount  of  heat  falling  on  a 
square  centimeter  (.  1 5  square  inches)  were  transformed  into  a  lifting 
force,  without  any  loss  whatever,  it  would  raise  a  cubic  centimeter 
(.06  cubic  inches)  of  water  against  the  force  of  gravity  at  the  rate  of 
about  4800  feet  per  minute.  A  similar  computation  shows  that  the 
heat  which  the  sun,  when  near  the  zenith,  radiates  upon  the  deck  of 


112  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

a  steamship  would  suffice,  could  it  be  turned  into  work  without  loss, 
to  drive  her  at  a  fair  rate  of  speed." 

How  long  the  sun's  heat  will  continue  is  a  matter  of  conjecture. 
Whether  or  not  it  has  continued  unchanged  is  debated  and  the 
glacial  period  has  been  ascribed  by  some  to  a  diminution  of  its  heat. 
It  seems  certain  that  when  the  sun's  heat  fails  the  earth  will  be 
surrounded  by  eternal  cold  and  darkness. 

In  1876  John  Ericsson  said:  "  Upon  one  square  mile,  using  only 
one  half  of  the  surface  and  devoting  the  rest  to  buildings,  roads, 
etc.,  we  can  drive  64,800  steam  engines,  each  of  100  horse-power, 
simply  by  the  heat  radiating  from  the  sun.  Archimedes,  having 
completed  his  calculation  of  the  force  of  a  lever,  said  that  he  could 
move  the  earth ;  I  affirm  that  the  concentration  of  the  heat 
radiated  by  the  sun  would  produce  a  force  capable  of  stopping  the 
earth  in  its  course."  A  firm  believer  in  the  truth  of  his  theories,  he 
devoted  the  last  fifteen  years  of  his  life  and  $100,000  to  experi- 
mental work  on  his  solar  engine. 

Efforts  to  Harness  the  Sun.  Ericsson's  motor  is  a  simple  ma- 
chine and  its  most  striking  feature  is  the  immense  mirror.  This  is 
not  flat,  nor  is  it  all  one  mirror.  It  comprises  a  large  trough-shaped 
frame  with  a  parabolic  curve.  If  the  inside  of  this  trough  were 
covered  with  a  mirror  conforming  to  its  curve  and  exposed  to  the 
sun,  the  rays  would  all  be  concentrated  in  a  line  at  the  focus  of  the 
parabola.  A  long  tube  placed  in  this  would  catch  on  its  surface  all 
the  concentrated  rays  from  the  mirror.  These  would  heat  the  tube 
to  a  temperature  of  about  600  degrees  on  a  summer  day,  or  a  few 
degrees  less  on  a  winter  day.  If  water  were  to  be  passed  through 
this  hot  tube,  it  would  be  converted  into  steam.  This  was  the  form 
of  Ericsson's  first  motor  generator.  But  he  soon  found  that  even 
though  all  the  rays  were  concentrated  by  the  curved  surface,  the 
bending  of  the  rays  into  small  prisms,  by  the  curved  surface  of  the 


POWER.  113 

mirror,  caused  a  loss  of  heat  delivered  at  the  cylinder.  This  led  to 
the  discovery  that  if  heat  rays  are  bent  together  there  is  an  inter- 
ference with  wave  motion  that  diminishes  the  amount  of  heat  con- 
veyed. After  many  experiments  he  made  use  of  a  large  number  of 
narrow  mirrors  arranged  side  by  side  following  the  curve  of  the 
frame,  but  every  individual  mirror  being  a  plane  surface.  These  did 
not  bunch  the  rays,  and  almost  the  full  amount  of  the  heat  con- 
tained was  applied  to  the  heater,  very  much  increasing  the  efficiency 
of  the  motor.  The  mirror  and  heater  were  mounted  on  a  stand  and 
moved  by  mechanism  to  keep  the  mirror  at  all  times  pojnted  directly 
at  the  sun.  A  supply  pipe  was  connected  with  one  end  of  the 
heater  and  at  the  other  end  was  a  pipe  for  carrying  the  heated 
medium,  usually  water,  to  the  best  steam  engine  obtainable. 
Flexible  pipes  were  required,  and  after  a  time  he  was  able  to  pro- 
duce these  satisfactorily.  Air,  in  place  of  water,  could  be  used  and 
heated  enough  to  get  a  working  pressure,  inferior  to  steam,  it  is 
true,  but  a  good  thing  in  countries  where  there  is  plenty  of  air  and 
very  little  water. 

More  heat  can  be  gathered  at  midday,  because  then  the  sun's 
rays,  falling  perpendicularly  upon  the  atmosphere,  pass  through  less 
than  when  the  sun  is  near  the  horizon.  The  engine  can  be  worked 
eight  hours  a  day  and  the  energy  turned  into  electricity  and  used 
to  charge  storage  batteries.  The  mirror  and  heater  do  not  cost  so 
much  as  an  ordinary  steam  boiler  of  the  same  capacity.  The  engine 
is,  of  course,  the  same  as  would  be  used  with  a  steam  boiler.  The 
steam  boiler  is  helpless  without  its  fuel.  Coal  must  be  mined  from 
the  earth,  hoisted  to  the  surface,  usually  hauled  a  long  distance  and 
frequently  handled  many  times  before  getting  to  the  furnace.  Only 
a  skilled  fireman  can  burn  it  efficiently  and  all  this  takes  work,  time, 
and  money.  Not  so  with  the  sun  motor.  As  the  sun  appears 
above  the  horizon  the  mirror  is  pointed  at  it,  and  clockwork  mech- 


114         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

anism  moves  it  to  follow  the  sun's  course.  The  engine  once 
started  the  machine  needs  no  further  attention  except  an  occasional 
oiling  until  time  to  shut  down.  Stopping  the  clock  brings  the 
mirror  to  rest,  and  the  rays  are  in  a  few  minutes  focusing  on  a 
point  that  is  not  in  the  range  of  the  heater. 

Ericsson's  engine  requires  for  its  highest  efficiency  a  cloudless 
sky  and  a  tropical  sun.  The  country  where  such  conditions  abound 
is  not  likely  to  be  thickly  populated.  "When  the  world's  forests 
have  all  been  stripped  and  her  coal  beds  have  all  been  rifled,  it  is 
probable  that  the  center  of  population  will  be  in  the  center  of  the 
Sahara  Desert,  where  the  sun  sheds  his  store  of  power  most  lavishly. 
Religions  have  changed  in  less  time  than  will  be  necessary  to  bring 
this  about,  and  by  that  time  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  name  of 
John  Ericsson,  enveloped  in  the  mists  of  the  past,  will  be  revered  as 
the  Greeks  were  wont  to  reverence  Vulcan." 


TRANSPORTATION. 

Roman  Roads  —  Transportation  and  Production  —  First  Steam  Railroad  —  Prejudice 
Encountered  —  Growth  of  Transportation  —  Mileage  at  Close  of  Century — How  a  Rail- 
road is  Built  —  Panama  Railroad  —  Trans- Siberian  Railroad  —  Railroad  Accidents  —  The 
Block  System  —  Tunnels  —  Rapid  Transit  —  Passenger  Movement  of  Great  Cities  —  Bicy- 
cles —  Automobiles —  Aerial  Navigation  —  The  First  Balloon  —  Military  Significance  of  Air 
Ships—  The  First  Steamboat  —  "  Great  Eastern  "  —  "  Oceanic  "  —  "  Deutschland  "  — 
Steam  Turbine  —  Famous  Ship  Canals  —  Canadian  Canals  —  Busiest  Canal  in  the  World  — 
Button  Pneumatic  Lock  —  Relation  of  Transportation  to  Progress. 

THE  primitive  man  built  his  own  house,  made  his  own  weapons, 
and  his  wife  and  children  fashioned  the  rude  garments  and  did 
the  agricultural  work.  But  as  association  showed  that  men  had 
varying  gifts,  one  became  a  hunter,  another  a  fisherman,  another  a 
maker  of  weapons,  and  the  germ  of  il  division  of  labor"  was  planted 
and  has  grown  until  to-day  our  complex  industrial  system  has  made 
us  all  servants  of  one  another. 

Sociologists  maintain  that  man  owes  much  of  his  progress  to  as- 
sociation. His  wants  must  have  been  few  indeed  when  his  own 
efforts  could  supply  them,  and  the  modern  breakfast  table  would 
look  bare  and  uninviting  that  offered  only  the  products  that  the  im- 
mediate vicinity  could  afford.  With  the  growth  of  "  division  of  la- 
bor "  the  variety  of  products  increased  and  the  necessity  for  a  cheaper 
means  of  transportation  grew  apparent  and  even  urgent,  for  next  to 
the  ability  to  produce  is  the  necessity  of  distribution. 


1 16       THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

Trading  Promotes  Civilization.  Conquest  usually  preceded 
trade,  and  the  routes  traveled  back  and  forth  by  the  armies  of  the 
ancient  Persians  and  Egyptians  afterward  became  lines  of  travel  over 
which  passed  the  rich  goods  of  the  Orient.  It  was  trade  that  built 
up  those  opulent  cities  of  the  Mediterranean:  Tyre,  Carthage,  Alex- 
andria, Genoa,  and  Venice.  With  the  development  of  civilization 
regular  routes  of  travel  grew,  over  which  passed  the  caravans  of 
traders,  merchants,  and  pilgrims  associated  for  security,  journeying 
from  one  country  to  another,  and  Asia  Minor  was  for  Europe  the 
gateway  to  the  East.  The  religion  of  Mohammed  changed  the 
course  of  the  world's  trade,  for  his  followers  were  fanatically  hostile 
to  the  western  nations  and  the  spread  of  Mohammedanism  across 
Western  Asia  cut  off  the  caravan  trade  with  the  Orient.  Portugal, 
the  leading  maritime  nation  of  the  fifteenth  century,  searching  for 
another  route,  sent  Vasco  da  Gama  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
discovered  by  Diaz,  and  established  a  water  route  to  India.  It  was 
the  needs  of  commerce,  a  new  and  shorter  route  for  the  trade  of 
India,  not  alone  the  spirit  of  discovery,  that  Columbus  urged  as  a 
reason  for  his  voyages  of  discovery. 

It  is  an  important  consideration  that  armies  be  readily  supplied 
with  provisions  and  munitions  of  war.  Genghis  Khan  (i  162-1227), 
with  his  armies  conquering  Northern  China  and  founding  the  Mogul 
Empire,  stopping  to  plant  crops  and  harvest  them,  furnishes  a  marked 
contrast  to  the  rapidity  with  which  Western  civilization  lately  organ- 
ized and  rushed  its  rescuing  columns  to  Pekin.  The  Romans,  for 
military  purposes,  threw  across  their  subjugated  colonies  a  network 
of  magnificent  roads,  some  of  which  endure  and  give  excellent  serv- 
ice at  the  present  time. 

Transportation  Creates  Trade.  "  Down  to  about  the  twelfth 
century  each  village,  as  a  rule,  formed  an  independent  community, 
having  its  own  blacksmith,  its  own  miller,  and  its  own  craftsman,  as 


TRANSPORTATION.  Ii; 

far  as  handicraft  was  developed,  while  the  operations  of  spinning  and 
weaving  were  carried  on  by  each  household  for  itself.  Certain  days 
were  set  on  which  the  country  people  would  carry  their  goods  to  town 
and  make  their  purchases.  These  market  towns  became  more  and 
more  the  residence  of  craftsmen,  and  the  place  in  which  the  various 
forms  of  manufacture  first  developed.  Stores  or  shops,  in  the  modern 
sense,  did  not  as  yet  exist.  The  farmer  sold  his  produce  at  the  market 
and  bought  his  goods  of  the  craftsman.  But  the  first  step  toward 
commerce  had  been  taken,  for  he  had  ceased  to  depend  upon  himself 
for  all  his  supplies." 

With  the  gathering  of  craftsmen  into  towns  and  the  development 
of  the  factory  system  transportation  was  quickened.  The  lessened 
cost  at  which  goods  could  be  produced  at  industrial  centers  left  a 
margin  of  profit  that  could  be  paid  to  a  carrier  to  wider  markets. 
Transportation  furnished  the  means  of  that  exchange  of  products 
which  rendered  the  division  of  labor  possible,  and  each  improvement 
in  transportation  facilities  helped  to  reduce  the  cost  of  carrying 
freight,  and  this  in  turn  stimulated  increased  traffic  and  brought  to 
the  consumer  products  that  otherwise  would  not  have  been  available 
for  him.  As  manufacturing  towns  grew  and  their  products  increased 
in  value  they  became  wealthy  enough  to  give  to  the  construction  of 
roads  and  the  bettering  of  means  of  communication. 

ROMAN  ROADS. 

The  skill  of  the  Romans  as  road  builders  aided  them  in  maintain- 
ing their  military  supremacy.  During  the  golden  days  every  road 
literally  led  to  Rome,  for,  outside  the  limits  of  the  Roman  world, 
there  were  no  roads  worthy  of  the  name ;  while  within  its  limits 
every  highway  was  but  part  of  a  system  which  centered  in  the  Ap- 
pian  Forum.  From  the  Wall  of  Antoninus  in  Britain,  to  Jerusalem, 
was  4080  miles;  and  to  the  extreme  limits  of  the  empire  on  the  Eu- 


Il8  THE   MARVELS    OF   MODERN   MECHANISM. 

phrates  4500  miles,  all  included  in  the  system.  These  roads  were  of 
a  military  character,  and  no  country  was  considered  by  the  Romans 
as  conquered  until  roads  had  been  constructed.  Their  strategic 
value  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  every  provincial  insurrection  the 
rebels  tried  first  to  destroy  the  roads  and  bridges.  Road  making 
was  the  common  toil  of  the  slaves  and  criminals,  and  in  newly  ac- 
quired provinces  the  whole  male  population  were  often  temporarily 
forced  into  the  service. 

Every  mile  was  marked  by  a  milestone,  and  at  every  fifth  mile 
was  a  posthouse  where  forty  horses  were  always  kept  in  readiness 
for  imperial  service.  The  imperial  messenger,  using  relays,  could 
travel  100  miles  or  more  in  a  day. 

In  country  districts  nothing  affording  concealment  for  robbers 
was  allowed  within  .200  feet  of  the  road.  Roads  passing  where  the 
loyalty  of  the  people  was  open  to  suspicion  had  a  stone  wall  breast- 
high  built  on  each  side,  affording  quite  a  fortress.  From  city  to 
city  the  roads  usually  ran  in  a  straight  line,  property  being  con- 
demned without  much  regard  for  the  rights  of  its  owners.  Military 
requirements  took  precedence  over  every  other  claim.  Natural  ob- 
stacles did  not  deter  the  road  builder,  who  tunneled  mountains  and 
filled  morasses  with  stones  and  earth.  Grades  were  no  serious 
objection,  for  travel  was  almost  entirely  on  foot  or  on  horseback, 
wheeled  vehicles  being  little  used  in  the  country. 

Roman  Roads  were  Built  to  Last.  When  the  line  of  a  road 
was  determined,  on  each  side  of  the  road  trenches  were  dug  and  one 
foot  of  the  earth  between  removed.  The  earthen  floor  was  then 
packed  firmly  and  the  trenches  and  floor  filled  to  the  ground  level 
with  concrete.  The  whole  was  firmly  packed  and  allowed  to  solidify. 
Larger  stones  were  next  placed  on  this  base  and  the  interstices  filled 
with  mortar  and  the  road  given  another  layer  of  concrete,  like  the 
bottom  layer.  The  towns  and  cities  had  in  addition  a  top  layer  of 


TRANSPORTATION.  1 19 

granite  or  basaltic  blocks,  cut  to  fit  accurately  and  making  a  smooth 
and  level  roadway.  The  typical  Roman  road  was  practically  a  mass 
of  solid  stone  from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  feet  wide  and  three  feet  or 
more  thick. 

The  Appian  Way,  the  finest  road  the  Romans  built,  has  been  in 
constant  use  for  more  than  1800  years.  The  top  layer  of  the  road  is 
made  of  hexagonal  blocks  of  granite,  so  accurately  fitted  that  even 
to-day  it  is  not  easy  to  detect  the  joints. 

Quick  and  Cheap  Transportation  has  had  a  potent  influence  on 
the  morality  of  commercial  transactions.  The  old  proverb,  "  Let  the 
buyer  beware,"  has  come  down  from  the  times  when  the  buyer  and 
the  trader  perhaps  saw  each  other  but  once  in  a  lifetime.  The 
trader  and  manufacturer  now  depend  on  the  buyer's  steady  favor 
and  prepare  their  goods  with  special  care  to  suit  his  tastes  and 
requirements. 

The  immense  gain  by  the  application  of  steam  to  railways  and 
navigation  cannot  well  be  estimated,  but  the  fact  must  not  be  lost 
sight  of  that  it  was  increased  productive  power  that  stimulated  trans- 
portation. The  steam  engine  did  its  first  work  in  a  coal  mine,  the 
first  locomotive  hauled  the  coal  from  that  mine  to  a  market,  and  as 
manufacturing  grew  under  the  stimulus  of  its  new  servant,  the 
needs  for  quicker  and  cheaper  transportation  became  more  urgent. 
The  locomotive  and  steamship  came  to  supply  the  demand. 

Transportation  Feeds  England.  If  an  example  of  the  necessity 
of  adequate  transportation  is  desired,  it  may  be  remembered  that 
without  it  England  would  starve  to  death  in  a  few  months,  for  her 
agricultural  industries  so  far  fail  to  produce  what  is  necessary  to  feed 
her  own  people,  that  she  is  required  to  import  food  supplies  for  285 
days  of  the  year.  This  point  has  an  especial  military  significance,  as 
is  evidenced  by  the  enormous  navy  she  feels  called  upon  to  sustain, 
to  guard  her  lines  of  food  supplies.  Modern  methods  have  made  it 


120          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

possible  to  supply  mutton  chops  from  Australia  for  the  London 
breakfast  table,  cheaper  and  quicker  than  the  same  could  formerly 
have  been  obtained  from  the  Highlands  of  Scotland.  Australian 
fresh  beef  carried  in  refrigerators  was  furnished  to  American  soldiers 
on  the  firing  line  in  the  Philippines. 

An  Example  of  Mechanical  Progress.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
find  a  town  offering  a  better  illustration  of  what  society  owes  to  me- 
chanical progress  than  Manchester,  England,  that  typical  hive  of 
systematized  human  industries.  Manchester  was  early  famous  as  a 
manufacturing  center,  and  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  time  it  was  spoken 
of  as  "surpassing  neighboring  towns."  In  1724  it  was  said  to  be 
"  the  largest,  most  rich,  populous,  and  busy  village  in  England."  It 
has  what  is  believed  to  be  the  oldest  free  library  in  the  kingdom,  and 
is  probably  the  birthplace  of  the  present  factory  system  and  methods 
of  modern  transportation,  for  it  was  here  that  Stephenson's  railroad 
had  its  famous  contest  with  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater's  canal.  It  also 
possesses  great  interest  for  the  student  of  municipal  government,  for 
it  owns  its  own  markets,  gas  works,  water  works,  street  railroads,  and 
numerous  valuable  electrical  and  water  power  privileges.  It  derives 
a  large  income  from  its  corporate  property  and  uses  it  for  public  im- 
provement and  to  reduce  taxation.  In  1757  this  city  had  a  popula- 
tion of  20,000  inhabitants,  of  whom  an  unusually  large  proportion 
were  engaged  in  manufacture.  Great  difficulty  was  frequently  ex- 
perienced in  securing  the  necessary  raw  materials,  cotton,  wool,  coal, 
and  iron,  as  well  as  food  supplies  for  the  operatives.  The  country 
immediately  surrounding  it  could  not  supply  all  its  demands  and  the 
nearest  seaport  was  Liverpool,  thirty-five  miles  away.  Connecting 
the  two  cities  were  excellent  roads,  and  freight  was  hauled  in  wagons 
by  horses  from  one  to  the  other  at  a  cost  of  $10  to  $12  per  ton. 
For  a  time  it  seemed  as  though  the  factory  system  had  outgrown  the 
transportation  system  that  supplied  the  raw  materials  for  its  finished 


TRANSPORTATION.  121 

products.  To  reduce  this  freight  rate,  which  greatly  increased  the 
cost  of  living,  cost  of  materials,  and  so  the  cost  of  the  finished 
products  of  Manchester's  factories,  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater  under- 
took to  build  a  canal  connecting  the  two  cities.  The  cartage  com- 
panies recognized  this  as  a  rival  and  left  no  means  unturned  to  incite 
opposition  and  provoke  ridicule.  The  canal  was  dubbed  "  The 
Duke  of  Bridgewater's  folly,"  but  he  was  a  man  of  indomitable 
courage  and  completed  it  after  sixteen  years  of  strenuous  effort  which 
is  said  to  have  shortened  his  life.  When  completed,  the  cost  of 
carrying  a  ton  of  freight  from  Liverpool  to  Manchester  fell  from  $10 
or  $12  to  $2.  Trade  felt  the  stimulus,  and  in  forty-five  years  the 
two  cities  had  increased  in  population  and  wealth  more  than  300  per 
cent.,  and  Liverpool  took  rank  as  the  second  commercial  town,  and 
Manchester  as  the  first  manufacturing  town  in  the  world.  But  with 
this  great  increase  the  factory  system  again  outstripped  transporta- 
tion and  Manchester  freight  often  waited  at  its  seaport,  longer  than 
it  took  to  carry  it  from  New  York  to  Liverpool.  Two  other  canals 
were  built  and  taxed  to  their  utmost.  Manufacturing  interests  in- 
creased and  the  resulting  prosperity  demanded  better  service.  The 
Liverpool  and  Manchester  railway  was  chartered  in  1828  and  it  was 
intended  to  use  horses  for  motive  power,  but  George  Stephenson  in- 
terested the  directors  in  steam  power  and  they  offered  the  prize  for 
the  Rainhill  contest,  with  what  result  the  world  knows. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  American  Republic  the  problems  of 
transportation  and  communication  were  deemed  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance, and  engaged  the  best  minds  of  the  country.  It  then  cost 
$100  to  move  a  ton  of  freight  from  Buffalo  to  Albany,  and  $5  to 
carry  a  barrel  of  salt  from  Pittsburg  to  Philadelphia.  The  locomo- 
tive had  not  been  invented  and  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  river 
was  controlled  by  a  power  none  too  friendly.  The  free  navigation 
of  that  stream  was  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  the  Western  colonies, 


122  THE    MARVELS   OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

for  it  furnished  their  only  cheap  means  of  communication  with  the 
seaboard.  The  states  were  encouraged  to  build  turnpikes  and  the 
United  States  government  began  the  construction  of  a  public  road 
from  Washington  via  Wheeling,  Columbus,  and  Vandalia,  to  the 
Mississippi  river.  The  necessity  of  better  means  of  communication 
was  recognized  by  all.  "The  subject  was  a  favorite  one  with 
Washington,  and  he  looked  at  it  from  both  a  commercial  and  a  po- 
litical point  of  view.  What  we  most  needed,  he  said  in  1770,  were 
easy  transit  lines  between  east  and  west,  as  '  the  channel  of  convey- 
ance of  the  extensive  and  valuable  trade  of  a  rising  empire.'  Just 
before  resigning  his  commission  in  1783  Washington  had  explored 
the  route  through  the  Mohawk  valley,  afterward  taken  first  by  the 
Erie  canal  and  then  by  the  New  >  York  Central  railroad,  and  had 
prophesied  its  commercial  importance  in  the  present  century.  Soon 
after  reaching  his  home  at  Mount  Vernon,  he  turned  his  attention  to 
the  improvement  of  intercourse  with  the  west  through  the  valley  of 
the  Potomac.  "  The  east  and  west,  he  said,  must  be  cemented  to- 
gether by  interests  in  common ;  otherwise  they  will  break  asunder. 
Without  commercial  intercourse  they  will  cease  to  understand  each 
other,  and  will  thus  be  ripe  for  disagreement.  It  is  easy  for  mental 
habits,  as  well  as  merchandise,  to  glide  down  stream,  and  the  con- 
nections of  the  settlers  beyond  the  mountains  all  center  in  New 
Orleans,  which  is  in  the  hands  of  a  foreign  and  hostile  power.  No 
one  can  tell  what  complications  may  arise  from  this,  argued  Wash- 
ington ;  *  let  us  bind  these  people  to  us  by  a  chain  that  can  never 
be  broken ;  '  and  with  characteristic  energy  he  set  to  work  at  once  to 
establish  that  line  of  communication  that  has  since  grown  into  the 
Chesapeake  and  Ohio  canal  and  into  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  rail- 
road."* The  need  was  urgent  enough,  for  in  1814  Robert  Fulton 
estimated  that  it  cost  $100  to  move  a  ton  of  freight  by  means  of 

*  John  Fiske's  "  Critical  Period  of  American  History." 


TRANSPORTATION.  123 

horses  and  wagons  three  hundred  miles  on  the  highways  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Ohio.  The  transportation  system  between  Philadelphia 
and  Pittsburg  was  the  most  primitive.  "  For  several  years  after  the 
peace  of  1783,  there  was  nothing  but  a  horse  path  over  the  moun- 
tains; so  that  salt,  iron,  powder,  lead,  and  other  necessary  articles 
had  to  be  carried  on  pack  horses  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg. 
As  late  as  1794,  the  year  of  the  insurrection,  so  bad  were  the  roads 
that  freight  in  wagons  cost  from  $5  to  $10  per  100  pounds;  salt  sold 
for  $5  a  bushel ;  iron  and  steel  for  fifteen  to  twenty  cents  a  pound  in 
Pittsburg."  * 

No  longer  ago  than  1809  freight  going  from  Lake  Ontario  to 
Lake  Erie  and  west  had  to  be  hauled  from  the  mouth  of  the  Niagara 
river  to  the  head  of  the  falls,  a  distance  of  twenty-eight  miles. 
The  regular  charge  for  this  was  seventy-five  cents  for  a  bushel  of  salt 
and  $10  for  a  ton  of  general  merchandise.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  the 
costs  would  mount  up  with  frightful  rapidity  when  goods  had  to  be 
carried  by  such  methods  any  considerable  distance.  The  humblest 
laborer  of  to-day  enjoys  what  would  then  have  been  unparalleled  lux- 
ury for  people  in  comfortable  circumstances,  while  the  economy  and 
self-denial  necessary  for  those  less  fortunate  can  hardly  be  imagined. 

Primitive  Methods  in  South  America.  Some  of  the  primitive 
methods  yet  employed  in  the  South  American  states  are  interesting. 
The  transportation  system  of  Colombia  contrasts  sharply  with  im- 
proved methods  and  shows  the  condition  of  affairs  where  every 
pound  of  freight  must  be  carried  either  by  mule  or  man  power.  The 
chief  port  of  entry  of  Colombia  is  Barranquilla,  on  the  Magdalena  riv- 
er. The  city  is  eighteen  miles  from  the  coast  and  bars  obstruct  navi- 
gation below  the  city.  A  narrow  gauge  railroad  eighteen  miles  long 
connects  the  city  with  the  coast  and  runs  out  on  a  steel  pier  over 
4000  feet  long,  at  the  end  of  which  there  is  26  feet  of  water  at  low 

*  Eagle's  "  History  of  Pennsylvania." 


124          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

tide.  This  pier  is  remarkable  as  being  one  of  the  longest  three  in  the 
world.  It  annually  receives  34,000  tons  of  freight  and  discharges 
23,000  tons.  Freight  intended  for  the  interior  of  the  country  is  put 
up  in  packages  of  about  125  pounds,  two  packages  making  a  mule 
load.  If  the  packages  are  heavier,  they  are  carried  by  man  or  woman 
power,  and  as  the  weight  of  the  package  increases  the  prices  go  up  at 
an  amazing  rate.  The  average  man  load  is  330  pounds,  and  the  load 
most  frequently  carried  by  the  woman  packers  is  no  less  than  220 
pounds.  One  of  the  packers  recently  carried  an  organ,  packed  in  its 
case,  on  his  back  for  90  miles  inland.  When  the  package  is  too 
heavy  to  be  thus  packed,  it  is  dragged  along  the  rough  and  treach- 
erous mountain  trails  by  means  of  a  rope  and  windlass,  and  the 
progress  is  slow  indeed.  One  piece  of  machinery  for  the  government 
mint  was  five  years  on  a  100  mile  trip.  Man  packing  costs  $10. 18 
per  ton-mile  in  paper  money;  mule  packing  from  65  cents  to  $3.00 
per  ton-mile.  It  recently  cost  a  contractor  $1500  to  transport 
twelve  2O-foot  iron  rails  over  90  miles  of  mountain  road.  A  sack  of 
coffee  weighing  one  sixteenth  ton,  carried  from  the  plantation  where 
it  is  grown  to  its  market  in  New  York,  costs  for  mule-packing  to  the 
river  $8.50  paper  money.  For  500  miles  down  the  river  to  Barran- 
quilla,  it  is  carried  by  boat  for  $1.92  and  the  18  miles  of  railway  to 
the  dock  costs  33  cents.  This  is  a  total  of  $10.75  in  paper,  or  $4.30 
in  gold,  for  the  first  598  miles  transportation.  A  steamer  then  takes 
it  and  delivers  it  in  New  York,  2000  miles  away,  for  only  40  cents. 
A  ton  of  freight  can  be  brought  from  Europe,  5500  miles,  and  car- 
ried 600  miles  up  the  Magdalena  river  for  $24.  But  His  Excellency, 
the  mule,  demands  $64.00  to  carry  it  the  remaining  90  miles  inland 
to  the  capital. 

RAILROADS. 

The  primitive   method   of  packing  freight  on  the  back  of  a  horse 
is  expensive,  for  it  does  not  allow  him  to  apply  his  strength  to  the 


TRANSPORTATION.  125 

best  advantage.  Placed  on  wheels,  he  can  take  three  times  as  much 
over  a  poor  earthen  road,  nine  times  over  a  good  macadamized  road, 
twenty-five  times  over  a  plank  road,  thirty-three  times  over  a  stone 
trackway,  and  fifty-four  times  over  a  good  railway,  as  he  can  carry 
on  his  back.  The  foregoing  is  about  the  order  in  which  railway  con- 
struction using  the  horse  as  a  motive  power  developed.  In  the  reign 
of  George  III.,  the  inland  transportation  facilities  of  England  were 
at  such  a  low  ebb  that  the  old  Roman  roads  furnished  the  best  routes 
of  travel. 

It  is  uncertain  when  railways  first  came  into  use,  but  the  plan  is 
old,  and  stone  tramways  have  been  attributed  to  the  Romans. 
Their  tracks  were  said  to  have  been  made  of  two  lines  of  cut  stones. 
Smiles's  "  Life  of  George  Stephenson  "  states  that  in  1630  Master 
Beaumont  laid  down  wooden  rails  from  his  coal  pits  near  Newcastle 
to  the  river  side.  In  1738  Jessop  introduced  at  Loughborough  the 
cast  iron  edge  rails  and  cast  flanges  upon  the'tires  of  the  wheels  so 
as  to  keep  them  on  the  track.  In  1800,  at  Little  Eton,  Derbyshire, 
Outram  used  stone  sleepers  for  his  railroad,  and  from  his  name  is 
derived  the  term  "tramways." 

The  application  of  the  flange  to  the  car  wheel  was  a  great  im- 
provement. The  manufacture  of  wrought  iron  improved  until  rolling 
mills  were  able  to  turn  out  long  strips  called  "strap  iron"  and  these 
were  spiked  to  the  top  of  the  wooden  rails. 

>As  loads  grew  heavier  and  requirements  greater  the  "  T  "  rail  was 
vntroduced,  on  top  of  which  the  wheels  ran.  The  rail  was  held  in 
place  by  brackets  called  "  chairs,"  spiked  to  crosspieces  called 
"  ties." 

The  First  Steam  Railway  was  that  at  Pen-y-Darran  in  South 
Wales,  nine  miles  long  and  covered  with  cast  iron  plates.  On  this  a 
Trevithick  engine  was  employed  to  haul  coal.  The  Stockton  and 
Darlington  railway,  opened  in  1825,  was  a  coal  road  on  which  it  was 


126          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

intended  to  use  horses,  but  George  Stephenson  constructed  locomo- 
tives weighing  about  twelve  tons  that  under  favorable  circumstances 
were  able  to  carry  a  load  with  a  speed  of  seven  or  eight  miles  an 
hour. 

Stephenson's  success  on  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  railroad  in- 
clined the  managers  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  railroad  to 
listen  to  him  favorably.  After  the  Rainhill  contest,  October,  1829, 
preparations  were  made  to  equip  their  road  with  Stephenson's  en- 
gines. It  was  opened  with  considerable  ceremony  September  15, 
1830,  and  William  Huskisson,  a  prominent  statesman,  was  struck  by 
a  locomotive  and  mortally  injured.  The  "  Rocket"  carried  the 
dying  statesman  to  his  home  fifteen  miles,  in  twenty-five  minutes,  at 
one  point  attaining  a  speed  of  thirty-six  miles  an  hour.  There  was 
no  longer  any  doubt  as  to  the  capability  of  the  locomotive,  and 
modern  railways  may  be  said  to  begin  with  the  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester road.  Stephenson  and  the  managers  had  not  succeeded 
without  a  hard  struggle.  The  railroad  met  as  violent  opposition 
from  the  canal  men  as  they  had  met  from  the  cartage  companies,  for 
if  the  newfangled  steam  locomotive  were  able  to  make  the  trip  in 
four  hours,  while  it  took  the  most  rapid  canal  boats  fourteen  hours, 
the  welfare  of  the  canals  would  be  seriously  jeopardized.  Present 
personal  interest  again  gained  the  ascendency  over  public  welfare, 
and  the  struggle  of  Stephenson  to  accomplish  his  plan  is  a  matter  of 
history.  Even  in  Parliament  it  was  argued  that  if  the  new  method 
of  travel  were  to  be  at  all  extensively  used,  such  people  as  stage 
owners,  teamsters,  and  inn  keepers  would  be  deprived  of  their 
means  of  livelihood,  and  national  disaster  would  swiftly  follow. 
However,  the  conservatives  had  to  "look  out  for  the  engine,"  for 
the  railroad  reduced  the  freight  rate  between  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester from  eight  shillings  to  less  than  one  shilling  a  ton,  and  gave 
an  electrical  impulse  to  transportation  throughout  the  civilized  world. 


TRANSPORTATION.  I2/ 

The  First  Passenger  Cars  on  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester 
roads  were  crude  enough,  and  not  as  comfortable  as  an  ordinary  flat 
car  now  used  for  hauling  freight.  They  had  no  roofs,  and  as  they 
were  without  springs  the  constant  jar  of  the  road  soon  shook  them 
to  pieces,  until,  as  a  matter  of  economy,  springs  were  added. 

In  the  early  days  of  steam  railroading  it  was  customary  for  a 
traveler  to  drive  up  in  his  own  private  coach,  remove  his  horses, 
have  the  coach  and  its  passengers  transferred  bodily  to  the  railroad 
carriages,  connect  them  to  the  train  and  complete  the  journey  in  his 
own  coach.  The  custom  left  its  imprint  upon  the  standard  pas- 
senger "  coach  "  of  the  English  roads,  which  for  many  years  bore  a 
close  resemblance  to  the  stagecoach  of  highway  travel. 

In  America  facilities  for  traveling  were  even  worse  than  in  Eng- 
land, for  the  country  was  new,  thinly  populated,  and  so  poverty- 
stricken  that  but  little  attention  had  been  paid  to  internal 
improvements.  In  the  palmy  days  of  stagecoaching  the  fare  from 
New  York  to  Albany  was  $12,  and  from  New  York  to  Boston  $15. 
When  light  coaches,  called  "flying  machines,"  put  on  the  road  be- 
tween New  York  and  Philadelphia,  were  able  to  make  the  trip  in 
two  days  it  was  spoken  of  as  marvelous.  The  express  trains  of  to- 
day cover  the  distance  in  two  hours.  In  1865,  one  Salt  Lake  City 
merchant  paid  $150,000  a  year  to  bring  his  goods  from  the  Missouri 
river.  The  same  year  transportation  cost  the  United  States  govern- 
ment in  Utah  $1,524, 1 19,  and  the  price  of  a  bushel  of  corn  delivered 
at  Fort  Kearney  was  $5.03,  Laramie  $9.26,  Colorado  $10.05,  Salt 
Lake  City  $17. 

Judge  Tait  of  Ohio  says:  "  I  paid  the  sum  of  thirty-two  dollars 
and  some  cents  to  be  carried  from  Wheeling  to  Cincinnati,  in  1835, 
a  sum  which  was  by  no  means  insignificant  to  a  somewhat  impecuni- 
ous young  lawyer  who  had  just  been  admitted  to  practice." 

Difficulties  of  Early  Travel.     About  the  beginning  of  the  cen- 


128          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

tury,  in  describing  the  traveling  between  Boston  and  New  York, 
President  Quincy  of  Harvard  College  said:  "The  carriages  were  old 
and  the  shackling  and  much  of  the  harness  made  of  ropes.  One  pair 
of  horses  carried  us  eighteen  miles.  We  generally  reached  our  rest- 
ing place  for  the  night,  if  no  accident  intervened,  at  ten  o'clock,  and 
after  a  frugal  supper  went  to  bed,  with  the  notice  that  we  should  be 
called  at  three  next  morning,  which  generally  proved  to  be  half  past 
two,  and  then,  whether  it  snowed  or  rained,  the  traveler  must  rise 
and  make  ready  by  the  help  of  a  horn  lantern  and  a  farthing  candle 
and  proceed  on  his  way  over  bad  roads,  sometimes  getting  out  and 
helping  the  coachman  lift  the  coach  out  of  a  quagmire  or  rut,  and 
arriving  in  New  York  after  a  week's  hard  traveling,  wondering  at  the 
ease  as  well  as  the  expedition  with  which  our  journey  was  effected." 

The  first  American  railroad  was  built  by  Thomas  Lieper,  1809, 
near  Bull's  Head  Tavern,  Philadelphia.  The  line  was  short,  but 
the  next  year  he  had  a  road  three  fourths  of  a  mile  long  leading  from 
his  quarries  to  the  landing  place  on  Crum  Creek.  He  estimated 
that  this  had  cost  him  $1500.  Progress  was  so  slow  that  what  is 
probably  the  first  iron  railroad  in  America  was  very  appropriately 
built  to  transport  the  granite  required  for  the  Bunker  Hill  monu- 
ment. This  road  ran  from  the  granite  quarries  of  Quincy,  Massa- 
chusetts, to  the  docks  at  tide  water.  It  was  begun  in  1826  and 
completed  in  1827,  using  granite  blocks  for  ties,  on  top  of  which 
were  placed  wooden  rails  faced  with  a  strap  of  rolled  iron. 

No  longer  ago  than  1827  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser  pub- 
lished a  series  of  articles  entitled  "Remarks  on  the  Practicability  and 
Expediency  of  Railroads  from  Boston  to  the  Hudson  River,  and  from 
Boston  to  Providence."  These  articles,  as  read  in  the  light  of  mod- 
ern achievements,  have  a  certain  tinge  of  the  ludicrous  but  they  are 
also  marked  by  sound  common  sense.  They  express  a  clear  recogni- 
tion of  the  necessity  of  a  better  means  of  transportation,  though 


TRANSPORTATION.  129 

some  of  the  expedients  they  suggest  are,  to  say  the  least,  unique. 
Horse  power  is  recommended  as  a  motive  power,  and  the  steam  loco- 
motive only  hinted  at  as  a  remote  possibility.  The  possibilities  of 
Massachusetts  as  a  manufacturing  state  were  stated  and  followed  by 
the  statement  that  while  the  population  of  the  United  States  as  a 
whole  had  increased  150  per  cent,  in  thirty  years,  that  of  Massachu- 
setts had  increased  only  30  per  cent.  This  was  attributed  to  the  fact 
that  there  was  no  adequate  means  of  inland  transportation. 

The  value  of  railroads  was  early  recognized,  many  ridiculous 
plans  for  motive  power  for  them  advanced,  and  some  amusing  devices 
tried.  "On  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  ran  first  of  all  a  little  clap- 
boarded  cabin  on  wheels,  for  all  the  world  like  one  of  those  North 
Carolinian  mountain  huts,  with  the  driver  perched  on. top  of  the  front 
portico,  because  the  motive  power  then  was  one  horse  in  treadmill 
box." 

First  American  Locomotive.  In  1819,  John  and  Maurice 
Wurts,  two  Philadelphia  Quakers,  undertook  to  supply  New  York 
with  Lackawanna  coal,  and  out  of  this  grew  the  Delaware  and 
Hudson  canal,  105  miles  long,  connecting  the  two  rivers.  For  some 
time  coal  was  drawn  in  wagons  by  horses  from  near  Carbondale  to 
the  canal  at  Honesdale,  and  shipped  thence  to  New  York.  Finding 
this  method  too  slow  and  expensive,  they  built  a  railroad  sixteen 
miles  long  from  the  mines  to  Honesdale  and  hauled  their  coal  in  cars 
drawn  by  horses.  This  trade  increased,  and  the  Delaware  and  Hud- 
son Canal  Company  became  interested  in  the  experiments  with  loco- 
motives then  being  conducted  in  England.  In  1828,  John  B.  Jervis, 
chief  engineer  of  the  company,  sent  his  assistant,  Horatio  Allen,  to 
England  to  study  the  subject.  In  May,  1829,  Allen  returned  with  a 
locomotive.  The  railroad  track  consisted  of  long  hemlock  stringers 
or  rails  6  by  12  inches  in  section,  on  which  were  spiked  bars  of 
rolled  iron  2j^  inches  wide  and  j£  inch  thick.  The  rails  were  sup- 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

ported  every  ten  feet  by  sticks  of  timber.  On  this  track  the  engine 
which  had  been  named  the  "  Stourbridge  Lion"  was  tried  August 
9,  1829. 

"  The  road  crossed  the  Lackawaxen  river  after  a  sharp  curve,  on 
a  slender  hemlock  trestle,  which  it  was  believed  would  not  support 
the  engine.  Allen  was  besought  not  to  imperil  his  life  with  it.  He 
knew  there  was  danger,  but,  anxious  to  connect  his  name  with  the 

first  locomotive  in  America,  he  determined  to  take  the  risk.      He  ran 

» 

the  engine  up  and  down  along  the  dock  for  a  few  minutes  and  then 
invited  some  one  of  a  large  assembly  to  accompany  him.  No  one 
accepted,  and  pulling  the  throttle  wide  open  he  said  '  good-bye  '  to 
the  crowd  and  dashed  away  from  the  village,  around  the  abrupt 
curve,  and  over  the  trembling  trestle  amid  deafening  cheers,  at  the 
rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour."  Mr.  Allen  lived  to  take  a  prominent 
part  in  the  improvement  of  locomotives  and  the  development  of  rail- 
road systems.  In  speaking  of  the  trial  on  the  Carbondale  and  Hones- 
dale  road  he  said,  "  I  had  never  run  a  locomotive  nor  any  other  en- 
gine before;  I  have  never  run  one  since."  The  "  Stourbridge  Lion  " 
was  attached,  after  the  trial,  to  trains  of  coal  cars  and  drew  them 
satisfactorily  on  the  dock  but  could  not  be  employed  to  advantage 
on  so  light  a  roadbed,  and  the  latter  could  not  be  fitted  to  the  engine 
on  account  of  the  expense  required.  Finally  it  was  taken  to  pieces, 
its  boiler  carried  to  Carbondale  and  put  into  the  foundry  where  it  was 
still  in  use  in  1890.  Such  was  the  career  of  the  first  locomotive  on 
the  American  continent. 

Short  lines  of  railroad  began  to  spring  up  both  in  England  and  in 
the  United  States,  and  the  queerest  ideas  prevailed  concerning  them. 
"The  people  at  first  thought  of  the  railroad  merely  as  an  improved 
highway  which  should  charge  tolls  like  a  turnpike  or  canal,  and  on 
which  the  public  should  run  cars  of  its  own  independent  of  the  rail- 
road company  itself .  In  England  long  sheets  of  tolls  were  published, 


TRANSPORTATION.  13! 

naming  the  rates  under  which  the  use  of  the  roadbed  should  be 
free  to  all."  The  people  of  New  England  had  no  more  accurate 
conception,  for  George  Ticknor  Curtis  said,  in  1880:  "  I  remember 
that  the  ideas  of  the  first  projectors  of  railroads  in  New  England 
and  of  the  public,  as  to  the  use  that  would  be  made  of  them,  were 
exceedingly  crude.  The  earliest  charters  granted  in  Massachusetts 
contain  traces  of  an  expectation  that  the  company  would  lay  down 
the  rails  and  that  the  public  would  somehow  drive  their  own  car- 
riages over  them,  the  proprietors  having  the  right  to  exact  tolls." 
The  lines  were  not  built  according  to  any  harmonious  plan.  As  late 
as  1847  there  were  in  England  seven  hundred  chartered  railroads, 
averaging  about  fifteen  miles  each  in  length.  What  is  now  the  New 
York  Central  and  Hudson  River  railroad  constituted  sixteen  separate 
and  distinct  organizations,  incurring  numerous  trans-shipments  of 
freight,  delays,  expenses,  multiplicity  of  offices,  division  of  re- 
sponsibility, and  all  attendant  evils.  The  public  need  eventually 
brought  about  in  the  fifties  consolidation  of  the  many  warring,  jarring, 
jangling  interests.  This  consolidation  was  not  due  to  the  wisdom 
of  legislators,  and  was  due  only  in  a  small  measure  to  the  personal 
influence  of  railroad  managers,  for  it  took  place  about  the  same  time 
all  over  the  world.  It  is  needless  to  say  it  reduced  operating  ex- 
penses and  gave  better  service  to  the  public.  It  seems  in  a  way 
to  have  foreshadowed  the  great  combinations  of  capital  now  being 
formed. 

Growth  of  Rail  Transportation.  Western  Pennsylvania,  during 
Washington's  administration,  suffered  for  the  lack  of  adequate  trans- 
portation. The  cost  of  carrying  grain  by  horse  and  wagon  one  hun- 
dred miles  was  equivalent  to  its  price  on  reaching  market.  The  same 
grain  turned  into  whisky  occupied  less  bulk  for  its  value  and  could 
be  easier  transported.  The  tax  upon  whisky  was  keenly  felt  because 
it  was  a  tax  upon  about  the  only  exchangeable  product  of  the  people. 


132  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN   MECHANISM. 

A  good  system  of  transportation  would  have  removed  the  exciting 
cause  and  modern  methods  have  made  its  recurrence  impossible. 

Pennsylvania,  with  the  first  American  steam  railroad  to  her 
credit,  continued  their  construction  with  commendable  zeal,  and  in 
1835  had  two  hundred  miles,  about  one  fourth  the  whole  mileage  of 
the  United  States. 

"When  the  roads  forming  the  line  between  Philadelphia  and 
Harrisburg,  Pa.,  were  chartered  in  1835,  and  town  meetings  were 
held  to  discuss  their  practicability,  the  Hon.  Simon  Cameron,  while 
making  a  speech  in  advocacy  of  the  measure,  was  so  far  carried  away 
by  his  enthusiasm  as  to  make  the  rash  prediction  that  there  were 
persons  within  the  sound  of  his  voice  who  would  live  to  see  a  pas- 
senger take  his  breakfast  in  Harrisburg  and  his  supper  in  Philadel- 
phia on  the  same  day.  A  friend  of  his  on  the  platform  said  to  him 
after  he  had  finished :  *  That's  all  very  well,  Simon,  to  tell  the 
boys,  but  you  and  I  are  no  such  infernal  fools  as  to  believe  it.' 
They  both  lived  to  travel  the  distance  in  a  little  over  two  hours." 

The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  was  the  first  road  undertaken  in  the 
United  States  for  the  transportation  of  passengers  and  freight  on  a 
large  scale.  It  was  begun  in  1828,  and  on  July  4th  of  that  year 
Charles  Carroll,  whose  life  seemed  to  form  a  connecting  link  between 
the  political  revolution  of  one  century  and  the  industrial  revolution 
of  another,  laid  the  first  rail.  In  1831  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  offered 
premiums  of  $4000  and  $3500  for  competing  locomotive  builders, 
and  the  winning  locomotive,  made  at  York,  Pa.,  was  carried  on 
wagons  over  the  turnpike  roads  from  there  to  Baltimore,  Md.  (See 
Locomotives.) 

By  the  close  of  the  year  1835  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  had  attained 
a  length  of  115  miles.  Peter  Parley,  who  wrote  school  books  for 
our  grandfathers,  describing  Maryland,  says:  "But  the  most  curious 
thing  in  Baltimore  is  the  railroad.  There  is  a  great  trade  between 


TRANSPORTATION.  133 

Baltimore  and  the  states  west  of  the  Alleghany  mountains.  The 
Western  people  buy  a  great  many  goods  at  Baltimore  and  send  in 
return  a  great  deal  of  Western  produce.  There  is,  therefore,  a 
vast  deal  of  traveling  back  and  forth,  and  hundreds  of  teams  are  oc- 
cupied in  transporting  goods  and  produce  to  and  from  market.  Now 
in  order  to  carry  on  this  business  more  easily  the  people  are  building 
what  is  called  a  railroad.  This  consists  of  iron  bars  laid  along  the 
ground  and  made  fast,  so  that  carriages  with  small  wheels  may  be 
run  along  them  with  facility.  In  this  way  one  horse  power  will  be 
able  to  draw  as  much  as  ten  horses  on  a  common  road."  It  was  on 
this  railroad  that  Peter  Cooper  in  1829  conducted  his  experiments 
with  his  little  engine  and  had  his  race  with  the  gray  horse,  and, 
singularly  enough,  Peter  Parley  speaks  of  such  an  animal. 

In  seven  years  after  the  beginning  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio, 
South  Carolina  had  in  operation  the  longest  line  of  railroad  in  the 
world  under  one  management,  the  Charleston  and  Hamburg,  137  miles 
in  length.  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Massachusetts  had  about 
100  miles  each. 

Beginnings  of  Railroad  Consolidation.  The  Mohawk  and  Hudson 
(Albany  and  Schenectady)  was  opened  in  1831,  the  Saratoga  and 
Schenectady  in  1832,  the  Rensselaer  and  Saratoga  in  1835.  What  is 
now  the  New  York  Central  had  in  1836  been  completed  from  Albany  to 
Utica,  and  by  1842  it  reached  Buffalo  by  a  devious  route.  In  1851 
the  line  was  completed  from  New  York  to  Albany  and  soon  all  the 
different  systems  from  New  York  to  Buffalo  were  consolidated  under 
one  management.  By  1851  the  Erie  had  been  completed  from  the 
Hudson  river  to  Lake  Erie.  The  Lake  Shore  and  Michigan  South- 
ern, connecting  the  New  York  Central  with  Chicago,  was  opened  in 
1852.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  New  York  the  railroads  had 
grown  up  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  canals,  for  until  1851 
canal  tolls  were  levied  on  all  freight  carried  from  Albany  to  Lake 


134  THE   MARVELS   OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

Erie  by  the  railroad.  It  was  many  times  seriously  proposed  to 
restrict  railroads  to  carrying  passengers  and  prohibit  them  from  car- 
rying freight. 

The  Camdenand  Amboy,  connecting  Philadelphia  with  New  York, 
was  completed  in  1837.  It  was  this  road  that  imported  the  English 
locomotive  from  which  Baldwin  secured  his  data  for  the  construction 
of  "  Old  Ironsides." 

By  1841  there  was  a  through  line  from  Boston  to  Albany,  which, 
completed  in  1842,  was  the  first  through  road  not  operated  simply 
for  local  traffic.  By  this  time  the  roads  of  New  England  began  to 
assume  something  like  system.  By  the  end  of  1848  Boston  and  New 
York  were  connected  by  the  New  York  and  New  Haven,  and  there 
had  been  constructed  5996  miles  of  railroad  in  the  United  States. 

The  Pennsylvania  railroad,  chartered  in  1846  and  begun  in  1847, 
was  open  for  business  in  1854,  and  by  1858  had  completed  a  line  to 
Chicago.  At  the  end  of  1860  there  were  over  30,000  miles  of  rail- 
road in  the  United  States,  where  a  generation  before  the  locomotive 
was  known  only  as  a  curiosity. 

The  following  table  shows  the  date  of  opening  of  any  section  of 
a  steam  railroad  in  each  state  :  — 


Pennsylvania,      } 
Maryland,             >  1830 

New  Hampshire,  1    0  0 
Ohio,                       f  I838 

Kansas,          )    R, 
Nebraska,       J  I8O/ 

South  Carolina,  ) 

Connecticut,      )    Q 

Nevada,  1868 

New  York,  ) 

Illinois,               }  l839 

Montana,    )  ,Q<^ 

Virginia,      [1831 

Mississippi,  1841 

TT.     i                   r   I  oOO 

Utah,          J 

Louisiana,   ) 

Indiana,  1842 

Colorado, 

Delaware,       )    „ 

Vermont,  1848 

Indian  Territory, 

New  Jersey,  J  I53* 

Tennessee,     )    R 

Oregon, 

North  Carolina,  1833 

Wisconsin,     f  I551 

Wyoming, 

Alabama,  1834 

Missouri,  1852 

North  Dakota,       / 

District  of  Columbia,  ) 

Texas,  1854 

South  Dakota,      J 

Kentucky,                      >  1835 
Massachusetts,              ) 

Iowa,  1855 
California,  1856 

Idaho,  1874 
New  Mexico,  1878 

Florida,             "1 

Arkansas,  1857 

Arizona,  1879 

Maine,                 !     c  s 
Michigan,           h83 

Minnesota,         )    o/- 
Washington,     J  " 

Oklahoma,  1886 

West  Virginia,  J 

Georgia,              )    R 

Rhode  Island,   \  J°37 

1870 
1873 


TRANSPORTATION.  135 

Nothing  can  better  show  the  rapidity  with  which  transportation 
systems  have  developed  than  the  simple  fact  that  engine  No.  999, 
the  best  that  American  skill  could  produce,  exhibited  at  the  World's 
Fair  in  Chicago  and  honored  by  being  assigned  to  the  Empire  State 
Express,  is  now  relegated  to  drawing  local  trains  on  a  subordinate 
road  of  the  New  York  Central. 

Railroad  Mileage  enough  to  Reach  the  Moon.  In  1899  the 
mileage  of  tracks  in  the  United  States  had  risen  to  245,238.87,  or 
rather  more  than  enough  to  reach  to  the  moon  and  constituting  more 
than  half  the  mileage  of  the  world.  The  same  year  the  United 
States  employed  176,726  miles  to  carry  mail.  Not  so  very  long  ago 
relays  of  riders  carrying  the  mail  on  horseback  formed  the  connect- 
ing link  across  the  continent.  The  contrast  must  appear  startling  to 
Buffalo  Bill,  who  in  his  early  manhood  was  one  of  the  best  known 
messengers  of  this  famous  "  pony  express." 

At  the  close  of  the  century  the  New  York  Central  owned  or  con- 
trolled 10,410  miles  of  road;  the  Pennsylvania,  .10,392  ;  the  Cana- 
dian Pacific  Overland,  10,018;  the  Southern  Pacific,  9632;  the 
Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa  Fe,  7880;  the  Union  Pacific,  5584;  the 
Northern  Pacific,  5489;  and  the  Great  Northern,  5201.  Europe  had 
167,439  miles.  The  average  mileage  per  million  inhabitants  was: 
Sweden  1247,  Switzerland  730,  France  670,  Denmark  669,  Finland 
604,  Norway  571*  Germany  563,  England  527,  Turkey  154. 

The  art  of  railroad  building  grew  so  fast  as  to  outstrip  the  lan- 
guage. A  manufacturer  in  one  state  ordering  parts  of  locomotives 
or  cars  from  a  manufacturer  in  another  state,  frequently  found  it 
difficult  to  make  himself  understood  because  the  names  varied  in  dif- 
ferent states,  so,  to  obviate  the  difficulty,  a  committee  of  car  builders 
came  together  and  compiled  a  dictionary  of  560  pages  with  over  2000 
illustrations. 

Crude  Methods  of  the  Early  Days.     Some    of   the    expedients 


136  THE   MARVELS   OF   MODERN   MECHANISM. 

practiced  on  the  early  railroads  seem  very  amusing.  On  the  Phil- 
adelphia, Germantown  and  Norristown  railroad,  if  the  conductor 
wished  the  train  to  stop  he  climbed  a  ladder  to  the  roof  of  the  car  and 
ran  forward  till  he  could  make  the  engineer  hear  his  shouts,  for  there 
were  no  bell  ropes  and  the  steam  whistle  had  not  been  invented. 
Before  the  appearance  of  the  headlight  night  trips  were  avoided  as 
far  as  possible.  Horatio  Allen,  on  his  South  Carolina  railroad,  ran 
for  night  trips  a  platform  car  ahead  of  his  engine,  on  which  was  a  pile 
of  sand  having  a  fire  of  pine  knots  built  upon  it. 

Trevithick's  engine  required  a  horse  to  help  it  up  grades  of  more 
than  1 8  feet  in  a  mile.  In  1832  the  superintendent  of  the  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  boasted  that  he  had  an  engine  that  could  draw  17  tons  at  a 
speed  of  ten  miles  an  hour  up  a  grade  of  nearly  55  feet  to  the  mile. 
In  1840  the  Reading  railroad  considered  drawing  221  tons  from 
Reading  to  Norristown,  41  miles,  in  3. hours  and  41  minutes,  a  nota- 
ble performance.  The  fears  for  the  roadbed  kept  down  the  weight 
of  the  locomotives  and  trains,  for  iron  rails  were  hard  to  get  and  ex- 
pensive. Mention  has  been  made  of  cast  iron  and  strap  rails.  The 
first  rolled  rails  were  about  three  feet  in  length,  but  as  the  art  of  iron 
making  progressed  they  became  longer,  heavier,  and  better  able  to 
bear  loads.  Colonel  Robert  L.  Stevens  of  the  Camden  and  Amboy 
road  improved  the  crude  T  rail  by  putting  a  flange  on  the  bottom, 
doing  away  with  the  chairs  and  giving  a  base  that  could  be  spiked  or 
bolted  to  the  cross-ties.  But  rails  were  expensive.  The  weight 
they  would  support,  and  their  cost,  limited  the  size  of  the  trains  and 
influenced  freight  rates. 

Steel  Rails.  With  the  development  of  the  Bessemer  process  steel 
rails  became  possible  and  they  are  now  almost  wholly  used.  The  life 
of  a  steel  rail  is  now,  even  with  its  greatly  increased  load  and  use,  five 
or  six  times  as  long  as  the  life  of  the  wrought  iron  rail.  The  first  one 
tested  on  a  railroad  in  England  lasted  seventeen  times  as  long  as  the 


TRANSPORTATION.  1 37 

wrought  rail.  Its  application  has  been  an  important  factor  in  rail- 
road traffic,  for  it  has  reduced  the  expense  of  construction  and  repair, 
and,  more  important  yet,  made  possible  longer  and  heavier  trains. 
The  most  powerful  locomotives  (see  Locomotives)  can  now  haul  a 
train  of  wheat  a  mile  long.  In  twenty  years  after  the  adoption  of 
steel  rails  the  New  York  Central  traffic  increased  from  less  than 
400,000,000  tons  to  more  than  2,000,000,000  tons,  while  the  average 
rate  fell  from  3.09  cents  per  ton  mile  in  1866  to  .76  cent  in  1886. 
The  locomotive  has  cheapened  transportation  until  the  skilled  work- 
man of  a  New  England  factory  can  pay  with  a  single  day's  wages  for 
hauling  from  the  wheat  fields  of  California  to  the  Atlantic  coast 
enough  wheat  to  supply  himself  with  bread  for  a  year. 

How  a  Railroad  is  Built.  A  new  railroad  being  determined 
upon,  an  engineer  is  sent  ahead  to  look  over  the  ground  and  deter- 
mine, roughly,  the  best  course.  This  is  called  the  "  reconnaissance." 
The  reconnaissance  is  followed  by  a  crew  for  the  "preliminary 
survey."  This  party  consists  of  a  chief  with  several  aids  and  their 
assistants,  each  to  perform  a  definite  part  of  the  work.  The  first  is 
the  front  flagman  with  his  axmen,  who  cut  away  intervening  brush 
and  trees  that  obstruct  the  vision  of  the  transit  man.  The  latter 
with  his  chainmen  and  flagmen  measures  the  distances  and  takes  the 
angles  of  the  line.  After  the  transit  man  comes  the  leveler  with 
his  rodmen  and  axmen.  These  take  the  levels  that  show  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  road.  Last  is  the  topographer  with  his  sketch  book, 
who  makes  a  sketch  of  the  road,  showing  the  hills,  the  water  courses, 
their  direction,  and  the  general  contour  of  all.  These  maps  are 
submitted  to  the  chief  engineer,  who  looks  them  over  and  indicates 
a  line  which  may  or  may  not  agree  with  the  preliminary  survey. 

The  survey  parties  go  over  the  field  again,  stake  out  the  new 
line,  record  the  levels,  run  the  courses,  and  lay  out  the  "approximate 
location,"  which  is  presented  to  the  engineer  for  his  final  approval. 


138          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

In  a  broken  country,  with  rivers  to  be  crossed,  hills  to  be  climbed, 
and  mountains  to  be  tunneled,  several  surveys  are  frequently  neces- 
sary, but  across  a  country  offering  few  natural  obstructions  the  pre- 
liminary survey  may  be  all  that  is  required.  Great  skill  and 
judgment  are  demanded  in  determining  the  first  location,  for  once 
selected  it  must  be  adhered  to  or  abandoned,  with  all  the  attendant 
cost. 

The  line  having  been  located  land  plans  are  drawn  and  the  right 
of  way  secured.  Other  plans,  showing  excavations  to  be  made, 
bridges  to  be  built,  culverts  or  tunnels,  are  made  carefully,  specifi- 
cations drawn  up,  and  the  work  let  either  to  one  contractor  or  to 
many  smaller  ones,  and  the  actual  work  of  construction  begins.  At 
this  stage  are  brought  into  action  steam  ditchers,  capable  of  moving 
4000  cubic  feet  of  earth  a  day,  steam  shovels  that  will  dig  as  much 
as  five  hundred  men,  rock  drills  operated  by  steam,  compressed  air, 
or  electricity,  hoisting  engines,  cranes,  pile  drivers,  and  all  that 
modern  mechanism  can  devise  to  expedite  the  work;  for  upon  the 
completion  of  the  railroad  wait  settlers  and  trackmen,  switchmen, 
brakemen,  conductors,  engineers,  telegraph  operators,  station  agents, 
and  others,  making  up  the  whole  army  employed  by  a  great  railroad 
system. 

Some  Engineering  Feats.  Some  of  the  greatest  feats  of  modern 
engineering  were  those  connected  with  the  construction  of  railroads. 
To  avoid  climbing  the  mountain,  the  St.  Gothard  tunnel,  nine  miles 
in  length,  was  driven  through  the  very  heart  of  the  Alps.  A  canti- 
lever bridge  crosses  the  gorge  of  the  Niagara  river.  A  ravine  at 
Kinzua,  Pa.,  half  a  mile  wide  and  300  feet  deep,  is  spanned  by  a  via- 
duct 305  feet  high  and  2400  feet  long,  and  the  elevated  railroads  of 
great  cities  are  nothing  more  or  less  than  long  viaducts.  The 
demands  on  the  constructors  are  in  keeping  with  the  magnitude  of 
the  work.  A  surveyor  is  expected  to  be  able  to  swing  by  a  rope 


TRANSPORTATION.  139 

over  a  precipice  1000  feet  in  height  and  retain  his  senses  and  nerves. 
He  must  be  "gifted  with  the  strength  of  a  drayman  and  the  accu- 
racy of  a  college  professor." 

"  No  heights  seem  too  great,  no  valleys  too  deep,  no  canons  too 
forbidding,  no  streams  too  wide.  If  commerce  demands,  the  engi- 
neer will  respond  and  the  railroads  will  be  built." 

Railroad  Management.  In  no  other  business  enterprise  is  sys- 
tematized work  so  necessary  as  in  the  management  of  a  railway. 
Not  only  must  the  labor  be  divided,  but  such  a  chain  of  responsibility 
established  that  mistakes  cannot  often  occur.  If  they  do  occur,  the 
system  must  immediately  discover  and  correct  them,  for  a  mistake 
on  a  railroad  may  mean  the  loss  of  hundreds  of  lives  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  thousands  of  dollars  worth  of  property.  The  arrangement 
of  such  a  system  is  as  great  a  problem  as  any  presented  to  a  general 
/>n  a  field  of  battle. 

The  president  of  a  railroad  has  under  him,  and  directly  respon- 
sible to  him,  three  men :  the  secretary  and  treasurer,  the  general 
manager,  and  the  general  counsel.  The  secretary  and  the  counsel 
arrange  their  own  staffs  and  conduct  their  business  as  seems  best  to 
them.  The  greatest  responsibility  rests  upon  the  general  manager. 
His  army  is  divided  into  eight  departments,  and  at  the  head  of  each 
is  placed  a  man  directly  responsible  to  the  general  manager.  The 
following  are  the  departments  with  their  subdivisions :  — 

1.  Comptroller. 

Auditor  of  receipts. 
Auditor  of  disbursements. 
Traveling  auditor. 
Local  treasurers. 
Local  paymasters. 
Clerk  of  statistics. 

2.  Purchasing  agent. 

Local  storekeepers. 


140          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM, 

3.  Superintendent  of  transportation. 

Station  agents. 

Receiving  clerks  and  laborers. 

Loading  clerks  and  laborers. 

Billing  clerks. 

Discharging  clerks  and  laborers. 

Delivery  clerks. 

Collectors. 

Yard  master. 

Yard  engineers. 

Switchmen. 

Brakemen. 
Train  master. 

Train  dispatchers. 
Operators. 
Conductors. 
Trainmen. 

4.  Division  superintendents. 

5.  Superintendent  of  machinery. 

Master  mechanic. 

Foreman  of  machine  shop. 

Engine  runners  and  firemen. 

Hostlers  and  cleaners 

Mechanics. 

Laborers. 
Foreman  of  car  shops. 

Car  inspectors. 

Greasers. 

Mechanics. 

Laborers. 

6.  Superintendent  of  roadway. 

Road  master. 

Supervisors  of  bridges. 
Bridge  foremen. 
Watchmen. 
Carpenter  gangs. 
Mason  gangs. 
Supervisors  of  road. 

Section  foremen. 
Gangs  and  track  walkers. 
Wood  and  water  tenders. 
Floating  gangs. 
Construction  trains. 

7.  Car  accountant. 

Lost  car  agents.  . 


TRANSPORTATION.  14! 

8.     Traffic  manager. 

General  passenger  agent. 

Traveling  agents. 

Local  agents. 

Rate  and  division  clerks. 
Claim  agent. 
General  freight  agent. 

Traveling  agents. 

Local  agents. 

Rate  and  division  clerks. 

RAILROADS  OF  CANADA.* 

The  railroads  of  England  and  those  of  Canada  well  illustrate 
the  extreme  use  of  transportation.  Those  of  England  were  built  in 
response  to  the  urgent  demand  of  an  old  and  rich  country  for  better 
transportation  of  raw  materials  and  finished  products.  Those  of 
Canada  were  built  because  they  were  military  necessities,  or  so  inti- 
mately connected  with  the  development  and  welfare  of  the  country 
as  to  warrant  provincial  and  Dominion  aid  to  the  private  companies 
engaged  in  their  construction.  The  first  Canadian  railway  charter 
was  granted  in  1832,  and  was  for  a  line  sixteen  miles  long  reaching 
from  La  Prairie,  on  the  south  bank  of  the  St.  Lawrence  river  op- 
posite Montreal,  to  St.  Johns,  on  the  Richelieu  (the  outlet  of  Lake 
Champlain),  at  that  time  the  terminus  of  the  water  route  from  the 
United  States  via  Lake  Champlain.  The  railway  was  to  be  the  water 
route's  connecting  link  with  the  St.  Lawrence  river.  Horses  were  em- 
ployed as  motive  power  and  locomotives  not  used  on  it  until  1837. 

Canada  was  slow  to  take  up  the  construction  of  railroads,  for  its 
small  population  was  settled  almost  exclusively  along  the  routes  of  its 
great  waterways.  Some  ambitious  railway  schemes  were  later  pro- 
jected but  there  was  little  capital  in  the  country  and  no  immediate 
promise  of  any  considerable  traffic,  and  as  the  Erie  canal,  only  four 
feet  deep,  had  proven  highly  successful,  great  things  were  expected 
of  Canada's  seven-foot  water  way  from  the  lakes  to  the  sea. 

*  From  data  furnished  by  PROF.  I.  G.  G.  KERRY  of  McGill  University. 


142  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

The  second  Canadian  railway  was  a  little  coal  road  six  miles  long, 
opened  in  1835,  and  the  first  engine  operating  on  it,  the  "  Samp- 
son," led  the  procession  of  locomotives  at  the  Chicago  Exposition. 

The  Great  Era  of  Canadian  Railways.  "In  1849  ^  became 
recognized  that  railways  of  great  length  were  practically  and  politi- 
cally necessary  to  the  well-being  of  the  country ;  and  the  policy  of 
liberally  subsidizing  private  companies  for  their  construction  was  in- 
troduced and  extended,  with  the  result  that  the  decade  of  1850  and 
1860  became  the  first  great  era  of  Canadian  railroad  construction." 
In  1859  the  first  passenger  train  on  the  Grand  Trunk  railway  passed 
over  the  Victoria  Bridge,  and  established  railway  communication 
from  Sarnia  at  Lake  Huron  to  Portland  on  the  Atlantic.  The  enter- 
prise had  proceeded  under  various  charters  and  in  the  face  of  great 
obstacles.  In  1851  a  Canadian  delegate  sent  to  England  to  solicit 
governmental  aid  failed  "  mainly,  it  is  charged,  through  the  activi- 
ties of  a  powerful  syndicate  of  English  railway  contractors,  by 
whom  the  scheme  was  finally  floated  on  the  London  market.  Many 
scandals  occurred  during  the  floating  and  the  construction  of  the 
line,  and  it  has  never  been  a  financial  success."  In  1860  the  Grand 
Trunk  had  in  operation  2065  miles,  nearly  all  of  it  within  the  prov- 
ince of  Ontario.  In  1900  it  operated  a  main  line  from  Chicago  to 
Portland,  Maine,  1138  miles  in  length,  and  the  railroad  with  its 
branches  aggregated  4186  miles,  about  three  fourths  of  it  being  in 
Canada  and  one  fourth  in  the  United  States.  The  Grand  Trunk  has 
a  large  capitalization,  upon  a  part  of  which  it  has  never  paid  even 
the  interest. 

One  of  the  greatest  engineering  feats  of  its  time  was  the  con- 
struction of  the  Roebling  Suspension  bridge,  completed  in  1854, 
across  the  Niagara  river.  This  was  for  the  purpose  of  connecting  the 
Great  Western  railway,  running  from  Windsor,  on  the  Detroit  river, 
to  the  Niagara  river,  and  connecting  by  means  of  the  bridge  with 


TRANSPORTATION.  143 

the  Erie  and  New  York  Central  roads.  This  road  was  afterward 
absorbed  by  the  Grand  Trunk.  Railroad  construction  again  lan- 
guished and  until  after  the  Confederation  the  Grand  Trunk  com- 
prised about  two  thirds  of  the  railroad  mileage  of  Canada. 

The  Great  Canadian  Pacific.  When  what  is  now  the  Dominion 
of  Canada  was  composed  of  separate  and  sometimes  jealous  provinces 
it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  a  railroad  system  running  from  one  to 
the  other  could  be  developed  by  provincial  aid,  but  the  confedera- 
tion of  the  provinces  in  1867  tended  to  unify  their  interests  and 
encouraged  the  construction  of  long  lines.  British  Columbia  en- 
tered the  Confederation  in  1871  upon  the  express  condition  that 
the  Canadian  Pacific  railroad  was  to  be  completed  within  ten  years. 
The  construction  of  the  road  was  commenced  in  1875  and  for  some 
years  occupied  the  most  important  position  in  Canadian  politics.  It 
was  commenced  as  a  public  work  but  in  1880  it  was  transferred  to  a 
private  company  which  carried  it  to  its  completion,  although  it  was 
from  the  start  recognized  as  a  public  necessity  and  in  every  financial 
difficulty  the  company  was  aided  by  subsidies.  Since  that  time 
most  Canadian  railroads  have  been  built  by  private  companies  liber- 
ally aided  by  subsidies  from  the  Provincial  and  Dominion  govern- 
ments. With  the  exception  of  the  Trans-Siberian  railroad,  the 
Canadian  Pacific  is  the  longest  continuous  line  in  the  world,  extend- 
ing as  it  does  from  St.  John,  New  Brunswick,  to  Vancouver,  Brit- 
ish Columbia,  a  distance  of  3387  miles.  It  has  an  extensive  system 
of  branches  throughout  Ontario,  Manitoba,  and  British  Columbia, 
giving  it  in  all  a  mileage  of  6302.7.  "  The  Canadian  Pacific,  due  to 
the  liberal  governmental  aid  it  has  received,  has  the  lowest  capitali- 
zation per  mile  of  any  of  the  transcontinental  lines,  and  may  be 
regarded  as  distinctively  Canadian,  built  for  national  purposes,  and 
with  the  most  promising  part  of  Canada,  the  far  west,  dependent 
upon  it  for  means  of  existence."  Many  prophesied  its  failure  as  a 


144  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

commercial  enterprise,  but  it  is  paying  good  dividends  and  it  is  due 
to  its  activity  and  encouragement  to  settlers  that  a  large  part  of  the 
Northwest  has  been  developed. 

The  Intercolonial,  connecting  the  maritime  provinces  with  Que- 
bec and  Montreal,  built  chiefly  for  military  purposes,  has  to  support 
a  long  line,  some  of  it  passing  through  an  unprofitable  country,  and 
rarely  pays  operating  expenses.  It  was  commenced  in  1869,  com- 
pleted in  1876,  and  cost  $21,000,000  for  499.5  miles. 

The  greatest  railroad  project  now  before  the  Canadian  people 
is  the  construction  of  the  McKenzie  and  Mann  railroads,  now  being 
built,  under  various  charters,  to  afford  another  through  line  from  the 
Great  Lakes  to  the  Pacific  coast.  It  will  be  known  as  the  Canadian 
Northern  railway.  Portions  of  it  between  the  Great  Lakes  and 
Winnipeg,  and  for  some  distance  beyond  Winnipeg,  are  now  under 
way,  and  some  of  it  is  already  open  for  traffic.  Its  general  route  is 
well  north  of  that  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  main  line. 

"  The  Canadian  roads  generally  are  built  and  operated  on  Ameri- 
can models;  the  engines,  cars,  tracks,  etc.,  are  of  American  types, 
and  owing  to  the  exchange  of  traffic  between  all  the  great  lines  and 
their  American  connections  the  freight  cars  are  being  rapidly  equipped 
with  air  brakes  and  automatic  couplers." 

The  speed  of  the  passenger  train  is  not  high  except  in  special 
cases.  The  most  notable  trains  are  the  Grand  Trunk  ''International 
Express."  from  Chicago  to  Montreal,  which  from  Toronto  to  Mon- 
treal averages  43^  miles  an  hour,  and  the  Canadian  Pacific  and 
Canadian  Atlantic  expresses  from  Montreal  to  Ottawa,  averaging 
from  45  to  48  miles  an  hour. 

11  Freight  rates  vary  with  classification  and  locality,  but  through 
freight  rates  are  largely  influenced  by  competition  with  American 
lines.  The  Grand  Trunk  railway's  average  freight  rate  for  the  first 
half  of  1900  was  .60  of  a  cent  per  ton-mile.  That  of  the  Canadian 


TRANSPORTATION. 


145 


Pacific  railway  for  1898  was  .76  of  a  cent  per  ton-mile,  its  average 
being  higher  on  account  of  the  higher  average  rate  in  the  West. 
The -grain  rate  of  the  Canadian  Atlantic  from  Depot  Harbor  to 
Coteau  Landing  is  about  .20  of  a  cent  per  ton-mile." 

Up  to  June  30,  1898,  $941,297,036  had  been  expended  on  Cana- 
dian railways,  of  which  20  per  cent,  had  been  obtained  from  gov- 
ernment and  municipal  aid.  The  following  table  gives  the  statistics 
for  the  principal  lines  for  year  ending  June  30,  1898  :  — 


C.  P.  R. 


I.  C.  R. 


G.  T.  R.        O.  A.  &  P.  S.   Can.  South. 


Passengers, 
Tons  freight, 
Receipts  per  mile, 
Cost  per  train-mile, 
Proportion  of  operating  ex- 
penses to  total  receipts, 
Gross  receipts, 


3,327,368 

1,528,444 

6,041,551 

104,214 

522,727 

5,493,°3° 

1,434,596 

8,773,322 

366,884 

3,869,602 

$143.88 

#78.83 

$115.05 

$80.52 

$116.00 

82.95 

82.36 

72.15 

61.77 

79.29 

57-8% 

105-3% 

63-0% 

77-0% 

68.6% 

$25,470,796  $3,117,669  $18,396,010  $479,954  $4,458,629 


STATISTICS  — CANADIAN    RAILROADS. 


Year  ending  June  30,    1899. 


Mileage  built, 

in  operation, 
Capital —  Ordinary  stock, 

Preferred  stock, 

Bonded  debt, 

Bonuses  and  government  loans, 

Other  sources, 

Total, 

Operation  —  Gross  earnings, 

Working  expenses, 

Net  earnings, 

Passengers  (number), 

Receipts  per  passenger, 

Receipts  per  passenger  train-mile, 

Tons  of  freight, 

Receipts  per  ton, 

Receipts  per  freight  train-mile, 

Cost  per  train,  mile, 


17,358 
17,250 


$270,325,496 

120,974,864 

362,053,494 

202,043,813 

9,302,117 

$964,699,784 

62,243,784 
40,706,217 
21,537,567 


1.24* 

0.78 


146          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

The  haul  is  not  given  for  either  passengers  or  freight  and  rates 
for  ton-mile  and  passenger-mile  are  therefore  not  reducible. 

Canals — Capital  expenditure,  $76,404,279 

Maintenance  and  operation,  15,632,242 

Total  receipts  (total  to  date),  12,079,274 
Excess  of  expenditure  for  maintenance  and  operation  over  receipts  for 

fiscal  year,  264,271 

Tonnage  on  Welland  canals,  1,140,077 

St.  Lawrence  canals,  1,439,134 

Chambly  canals,  271,336 

Ottawa  canals,  549.986 

THE  PANAMA  RAILROAD. 

One  of  the  most  picturesque  and  little  known  railroads  of  the 
world  is  that  crossing  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  It  was  constructed 
in  response  to  the  demands  for  a  shorter  route  to  California  than  was 
offered  by  the  long  voyage  around  Cape  Horn.  Its  Atlantic  terminus 
is  Colon,  its  Pacific  terminus,  Panama,  the  oldest  city  founded  by 
Europeans  on  the  American  continent.  The  road  is  supposed  to 
correspond  very  closely  with  the  route  of  Balboa  when  he  discovered 
the  Pacific  Ocean  in  1515.  It  is  forty-eight  miles  in  length  and  runs 
northwesterly  and  southeasterly.  Paradoxical  as  it  may  appear,  the 
traveler,  leaving  the  Atlantic  steamer,  journeys  southeasterly  on  the 
railroad  to  reach  the  Pacific  steamer,  for  at  this  point  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama  runs  nearly  east  and  west,  and  Colon,  the  Caribbean  termi- 
nus, is  west  of  the  Pacific  terminus,  Panama. 

This  road  has  other  peculiarities.  The  telegraph  poles  are  not 
poles,  but  worn-out  iron  rails,  and  the  cross  ties  are  of  a  wood  harder 
than  some  metals.  "  It  is  in  a  Spanish  country,  its  stock  is  held  by  a 
French  company,  its  charter  was  granted  by  the  State  of  New  York, 
it  is  dominated  entirely  by  Americans,  while  as  ordinary  laborers  it 
employs  British  negroes  almost  exclusively.!' 

The  Cost  of  Tropical  Railroad  Building.     In  December,  1846, 


TRANSPORTATION.  147 

a  treaty  was  made  between  New  Granada  (Colombia)  and  the  United 
States,  by  which  the  right  of  transit  was  given  to  the  United  States, 
and  both  powers  guaranteed  free  transit  across  the  Isthmus  ''from 
one  to  the  other  sea."  The  railroad  company  was  organized  in  1850 
and  the  road  put  in  operation  in  1855,  after  losses  connected  with 
engineering  operation  in  that  tropical  country  that  are  said  to  have 
cost  a  life  for  every  tie  laid. 

The, ground  is  deluged  with  rains  eight  months  of  the  year,  and 
nearly  all  kinds  of  wood  quickly  rot.  The  cross  ties  are  of  lignum 
vitae  and  cost  $1.20  apiece;  they  last  from  twelve  to  twenty-five 
years,  and  are  thrown  away  not  because  they  rot  or  have  worn  out, 
but  because  there  is  not  room  in  the  cross  section  to  drive  another 
spike,  for  the  wood  is  so  hard  that  a  hole  must  be  bored  for  the  spike 
to  be  driven  in.  As  the  rail  bends  beneath  the  load  the  tie  grips  the 
spike  so  firmly  that  the  head  of  the  spike  is  worn  or  cut  off;  the  old 
spike  cannot  be  pulled  out  and  a  new  one  has  to  be  driven  by  the 
side  of  it.  To  prevent  washouts  from  the  tropical  rains  the  surface 
and  sides  of  the  road  are  covered  with  concrete.  There  are  no  cat- 
tle guards  or  fences  along  this  road,  and  the  ponies,  using  it  for  a 
pasture  ground,  are  a  general  nuisance.  The  greatest  expense  in 
connection  with  the  maintenance  is  in  keeping  down  the  weeds,  for 
with  so  much  heat  and  moisture  the  growth  of  vegetation  is  rank.  It 
is  said  to  cost  from  $40  to  $50  a  mile  for  one  weed-cutting  operation 
by  hand.  A  later  method  that  promises  success  is  spraying  with  a 
solution  of  arsenic  and  saltpeter.  It  costs  only  about  one  third  as 
much  as  hand  labor,  and  the  increased  mortality  among  the  ponies 
seems  to  promise  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  owners  to  keep  them  off 
the  track.  The  officers,  supervisors,  roadmasters,  engineers,  and 
conductors  are  American,  as  well  as  the  terms,  phrases,  and  methods 
of  conducting  the  road. 

There  is  no  road  for  wheeled  vehicles  between  Panama  and  Colon, 


148         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

and  the  railroad  gets  all  the  traffic,  except  such  as  can  walk  or  is  car- 
ried on  ponies'  backs,  but  although  it  runs  through  a  fertile  country 
bananas  are  the  only  important  local  freight.  The  United  States 
has  several  times  landed  armed  forces  in  Panama  to  preserve  the  neu- 
trality of  the  road  during  political  disturbances  characteristic  of  that 
country. 

Trans-Siberian  Railroad.  Siberia  is  the  largest  single  country 
in  the  world.  It  contains  4,925,000  square  miles,  has  a  population 
of  but  8,000,000,  and  is  able  to  easily  support  80,000,000.  Eighty- 
two  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  the  Russian  Empire  occupy  but  23 
per  cent,  of  its  available  territory.  It  is  as  important  for  Russia  as 
for  the  United  States  and  Canada  to  open  up  her  government  lands 
to  actual  settlers.  The  popular  conception  of  Siberia  is  a  land  of  ice- 
bergs inhabited  by  criminals.  Nothing  could  be  more  erroneous.  A 
country  so  large  that  the  United  States  might  be  set  down  within  it 
and  leave  nearly  2,000,000  square  miles  uncovered  must  possess  wide 
ranges  of  temperature,  climate,  and  natural  products.  The  Russian 
Empire  produces  nearly  half  as  much  cotton  as  the  United  States. 
Southern  Siberia  has  millions  of  acres  of  fine  wheat-growing  land, 
waiting  for  the  immigrant  and  some  means  of  transporting  its  products 
to  market. 

The  Wonders  of  Siberia.  Siberia  already  produces  one  tenth 
of  the  world's  yield  of  gold,  and  but  few  mines  have  been  working 
and  little  improved  machinery  used.  Its  immense  coal  deposits  have 
hardly  been  touched  One  mine  alone,  with  six  beds,  is  estimated 
to  contain  as  much  coal  as  all  the  deposits  of  England.  * 

The  Trans-Siberian  railroad  deserves  attention,  for  there  is  no 
railroad  in  the  world  that  h?s  the  peculiar  economic,  political,  and 
military  significance  that  this  possesses.  The  system  that  connects 
St.  Petersburg,  on  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  with  ports  on  the  Pacific 

*John  C.  Covert,  U.  S.  Consul. 


TRANSPORTATION.  149 

ocean,  attracts  by  its  very  magnitude.  The  longest  continuous  line 
of  railroad  on  the  American  continent  is  that  of  the  Canadian  Pacific 
running  from  Vancouver,  British  Columbia,  to  St.  John,  New  Bruns- 
wick, a  distance  of  3387  miles.  The  railroad  crossing  Siberia, 
reaching  from  Cheliabinsk,  the  eastern  terminus  of  the  European  sys- 
tem, to  Vladivostock,  on  the  Sea  of  Japan,  is  4717  miles  in  length, 
and  its  branch,  running  through  Manchuria,  the  Northeastern  prov- 
ince of  China,  to  Port  Arthur  on  the  Strait  of  Pe-chi-li,  1273  miles 
in  length,  gives  with  its  European  mileage  a  system  6700  miles  in 
length  before  any  of  its  feeders  are  built. 

The  Siberian  railroad  was  first  proposed  by  an  American  named 
Collins  in  1857.  The  next  year  three  Englishmen  offered  to  furnish 
capital  and  build  the  road.  The  Czar  took  all  these  plans  under 
consideration  and  filed  them  for  future  reference,  for  it  is  the  gov- 
ernment policy  to  employ  only  Russian  engineers,  Russian  labor, 
and  Russian  capital  as  far  as  possible,  and  this  policy  has  been  rigidly 
adhered  to.  While  the  road  is  for  the  ultimate  purpose  of  develop- 
ing the  natural  resources  of  Siberia,  it  is  its  strategic  value  that  has 
hurried  its  construction.  From  St.  Petersburg  to  Moscow,  a  distance 
of  600  miles,  there  is  scarcely  a  curve,  and  none  that  are  needless. 
On  the  Siberian  road  proper  there  are  many  strips  for  eighty  miles  or 
more  without  a  curve.  The  last  rails  were  laid  December  28,  1899, 
giving  direct  communication  from  Vladivostock  to  St.  Petersburg. 

No  other  road  has  such  mining  and  manufacturing  prospects. 
Its  political  and  military  significance  are  even  more  striking.  It 
affords  Russia  through  her  own  territory  a  safe  passage  to  the  Pacific 
coast  for  her  troops  and  munitions  of  war.  It  renders  futile  Great 
Britain's  command  of  the  sea  for  any  purpose  of  balking  designs  that 
Russia  may  have  on  China.  It  brings  Pekin  within  two  weeks  of 
St.  Petersburg  and  greatly  augments  Russian  influence  there. 

Magnitude  of  the  Undertaking.      "The  builders  of  the  road  had 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

to  make  a  scientific  exploration  of  half  a  continent  and  drain  swamps 
and  utilize  peat  bogs  for  fuel,  lay  out  irrigation  ditches,  dig  wells, 
provide  for  the  housing,  feeding,  and  health  of  incoming  settlers  and 
their  animals,  to  erect  schoolhouses,  bring  in  agricultural  papers  to 
show  the  immigrant  how  to  plant,  water,  and  raise  crops  fit  for 
the  soil  and  climate,  make  country  roads  and  bridges,  arrange  rural 
mail  facilities,  and  a  multiplicity  of  othe^r  things  about  which  an 
American  railroad  man  has  not  to  think." 

It  is  not  likely  that  the  railroad  will  ever  be  a  considerable  carrier 
of  freight  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  The  schedule  time  of 
the  North  German  steamers  between  Bremen  and  Shanghai  is  forty- 
six  days.  Their  freight  rates  per  ton  to  Shanghai  or  Port  Arthur  are 
$6.25  to  $8.75  ;  to  Yokohama,  $8.75.  In  1898  the  rate  from  London 
to  Shanghai  was  only  $5.60  per  ton.  This  is  less  than  the  price  for 
which  the  Siberian  railroad  can  afford  to  carry  goods  7000  miles. 

The  road  will  probably  do  a  large  passenger  business.  The 
present  fare  from  London  to  Shanghai  by  water  is  from  $330  to 
$460,  varying  with  the  accommodations,  and  takes  from  thirty-four 
to  thirty-six  days.  When  the  railroad  to  Port  Arthur  is  completed 
the  trip  can  be  made  in  sixteen  days  at  a  cost  of  $162.80  first  class, 
or$iO2  second  class.  The  road  was  built  in  such  haste  that  some 
rails  weighing  only  twelve  pounds  to  the  foot  were  used,  and  the 
whole  has  been  so  hastily  constructed  that  it  is  estimated  $8,000,000 
or  $10,000,000  will  have  to  be  expended  for  reconstruction.  It  has 
cost  from  $18,025  to  $25,750  a  mile,  and  the  whole  cost  is  estimated 
at  $400,000,000.  The  company  is  a  joint  stock  concern  and  the 
government  owns  a  controlling  interest.  When  the  line  to  Port 
Arthur  is  finished  that  point  will  be  5819  miles  from  St.  Petersburg, 
6331  miles  from  Berlin,  and  7060  miles  from  Paris.  The  Russians  are 
rapidly  converting  Port  Arthur  into  an  impregnable  base  of  military 
supplies. 


TRANSPORTATION.  1 5  I 

The  Eastern  Question  bids  fair  to  be  the  most  portentous  of 
the  twentieth  century,  and  Russia  is  bending  every  energy  to  prepare 
herself  for  the  crisis.  The  future  may  hold  a  race  struggle  between 
the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the  Slav,  the  greatest  in  all  history.  The 
population  of  Russia  in  1855  was  64,000,000;  at  the  close  of  the 
century,  nearly  140,000,000.  At  her  natural  rate  of  increase  1950 
will  find  her  with  300,000,000  inhabitants,  and  what  power  will  then 
be  in  a  position  to  dictate  to  her? 

The  loss  of  life  on  the  Russian  railroads  is  something  fright- 
ful. With  only  about  one  eighth  the  railroad  mileage  of  the  United 
States  she  had  in  1896  accidents  resulting  in  6107  deaths,  to  say 
nothing  of  thousands  of  other  persons  crippled  for  life  or  less 
seriously  injured. 

The  Safest  Method  of  Travel.  "  On  a  New  Jersey  railroad  in 
early  days  there  was  painted  on  every  car  door  a  picture  of  a  new- 
made  grave  and  a  large  tombstone  on  which  appeared  the  following 
inscription :  '  Sacred  to  the  memory  of  the  man  who  had  stood  on  a 
platform.'  What  a  contrast  to  our  modern  vestibuled  trains,  in 
which  the  platform  is  about  as  safe  as  any  part  of  the  car! 

"  In  the  year  1887,  the  number  of  passengers  killed  in  train  acci- 
dents in  the  United  States  was  207;  the  number  injured,  916.  The 
total  passenger  travel  was  equal  to  one  passenger  traveling  10,570,- 
306,710  miles.  At  that  average  a  man  could  travel  for  194  years  at 
the  rate  of  30  miles  an  hour  before  he  would  be  'due  to  be  killed,' 
and  almost  46  years  before  he  would  be  liable  to  an  accident.  It 
would  seem  that  if  one  were  seeking  immunity  from  accident  he 
should  'take  a  train.'  It  is  unquestionably  safer  than  any  other 
way  of  getting  over  the  earth's  surface  except  walking." 

Train  Operating  Compared  with  War.  "  While  passengers  on 
a  railroad  train  are  running  such  small  risk  of  accident,  the  men  who 
make  a  business  of  running  those  same  trains  are  exposed  to  a  risk 


152  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

of  accident  that  is  really  appalling.  The  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
missioners' Report  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1899,  gives  the 
total  number  of  railway  employees  in  the  United  States  for  the  year 
as  227, 537.  The  god  of  travel  does  not  exact  much  from  occasional 
worshipers  but  from  his  constant  devotees  he  requires  and  receives 
an  annual  sacrifice  of  human  lives  that  would  make  any  heathen  god 
turn  green  with  envy. 

"  For  every  155  trainmen  employed  during  the  year  under  consid- 
eration, one  was  killed  ;  and  for  every  eleven  who  were  employed, 
one  was  injured.  Modern  warfare  is  a  horrible  thing,  but  it  can 
show  no  such  a  record  as  this.  During  the  same  year  63,000  troops 
were  in  the  Philippines,  of  whom  1640  were  killed  and  wounded, 
making  a  casualty  of  2.6  per  cent.  The  railroad  figures  of  2210 
killed  and  34,923  injured,  or  14.12  per  cent.,  makes  quite  a  startling 
comparison.  The  total  number  who  were  killed  or  wounded  in  the 
British  army  in  South  Africa  up  to  July  I,  1900,  was  15,000. 
The  total  number  killed  and  wounded  in  thj  American  forces  in  the 
Philippines  from  the  time  of  occupation  to  June  2,  1900,  was 
2620.  The  estimated  losses  of  the  Filipino  troops  up  to  the  same 
time  was  12,884.  These  figures  are  from  Secretary  Root's  report. 
Adding  all  these  we  have  a  total  of  30,504.  Allowing  a  loss  of  500° 
for  the  Boer  Army  up  to  the  same  time,  we  have  a  total  of  35,504. 
Thus  it  is  seen  that  the  total  losses  of  the  armies  engaged  in  the 
two  great  wars  in  progress  during  the  year  did  not  equal  the  number 
of  lives  lost  and  persons  wounded  in  carrying  on  the  business  of 
transportation  for  the  United  States  for  a  single  year."* 

The  most  numerous  accidents  are  those  due  to  coupling  and 
uncoupling  cars.  Several  states  from  time  to  time  passed  laws  mak- 
ing compulsory  the  use  of  automatic  couplers,  but  these  laws  were 
of  little  value,  for  they  were  often  drawn  by  men  not  familiar  with 

*  Army  and  Navy  Journal. 


TRANSPORTATION.  153 

the  requirements  of  railroading  and  the  jurisdiction  of  the  state  was 
limited. 

It  is  obvious  that  a  car  which  may  journey  from  Winnipeg  to  the 
city  of  Mexico  must  be  fitted  with  such  couplers  that  it  can  be  used 
with  other  cars  from  a  dozen  different  lines  on  whatever  road  it  may 
make  up  part  of  a  train.  The  simplest  and  most  generally  used  car 
coupler  was  a  large  iron  link  through  which  were  passed  coupling 
pins.  Thousands  of  patents  have  been  issued  for  car  couplers,  of 
which  but  few  were  of  enough  practical  value  to  warrant  considera- 
tion. Finally  a  committee  of  the  Master  Car  Builders'  Association 
was  appointed  to  study  the  subject  and  recommend  a  coupler.  They 
recommended  the  "Janney,"  patented  1873.  After  a  time  the 
United  States  passed  laws  requiring  that  roads  should  fit  out  new 
cars  with  automatic  couplers  and  providing  for  the  gradual  equip- 
ment of  others  with  them.  Progress  was  slow  and  the  government 
extended  the  time  limit  but  definitely  fixed  the  end  of  the  century 
as  the  period  when  all  cars  must  be  fitted  with  automatic  couplers. 

The  block  signaling  system,  dividing  a  road  into  sections  called 
"  blocks,"  their  length  depending  upon  the  extent  of  their  use,  is 
one  of  the  most  important  safety  devices  in  railroading.  In  cities 
and  switching  yards  the  section  may  be  only  a  few  hundred  feet 
long;  on  the  main  line  of  a  road  it  may  be  several  miles  in  length. 
At  the  end  of  each  block  stands  a  tall  post  with  two  movable  arms, 
called  a  "semaphore,"  pointing  toward  the  track. 

In  ordinary  practice  the  upper  one  has  a  square  end  and  is 
painted  red,  the  lower  one  has  a  fish-tail  end  and  is  painted  green. 
The  arms  are  continued  back  past  the  pivot  and  are  weighted  at  that 
end.  In  the  weighted  end  a  red  or  green  glass,  as  the  case  may  be, 
is  so  placed  that  it  can  cover  or  uncover  lanterns  and  display  signals 
which  can  be  plainly  seen  in  the  dark.  Each  color  has  its  special 
significance.  The  word  "semaphore"  signifies  "a  sign  I  bear,"  and 


154  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

accurately  describes  the  machine.  The  arms  are  usually  moved  by 
compressed  air  mechanism,  the  valves  of  which  are  operated  by  elec- 
tricity. In  the  electrical  method  the  rails  of  the  track  are  used  as 
conductors,  and  by  them  the  system  is  made  automatic,  for  at  the 
end  of  each  block  the  rails  are  separated  by  an  insulation.  When  a 
car  enters  the  "  block"  the  electric  current  is  short-circuited  through 
its  axles  and  the  semaphore  responds  and  the  upper  or  "  home  "  arm 
rises  to  a  horizontal  position,  and  remains  up  while  the  car  is  on  that 
block.  An  engineer  following  can  know  at  once  if  there  is  a  train 
ahead  of  him  on  the  block.  On  many  roads  it  is  forbidden  for  two 
trains  to  occupy  the  block  at  one  time.  Other  roads  have  a  third  or 
"caution"  signal  which  allows  an  engineer  to  go  ahead  at  his  own 
risk.  When  the  "home"  signal  is  raised  the  lower  or  "distant" 
arm  is  brought  up.  This  stays  up  till  the  train  has  passed  out  of  the 
succeeding  block,  so  the  following  engineer  not  only  knows  whether 
the  block  immediately  ahead  of  him  is  clear  or  not,  but  he  also 
knows  whether  the  next  one  is  occupied  or  not.  After  a  train  has 
passed  the  two  blocks,  both  signals  drop  to  "safety"  and  the  fol- 
lowing engineer  can  proceed.  The  plan  just  described  is  the  most 
simple.  Complicated  lines  may  require  many  modifications  or  com- 
binations of  it. 

A  speed  of  seventy-five  miles  an  hour  means  moving  one  hundred 
and  ten  feet  in  a  second.  A  moderately  heavy  passenger  train 
weighs  300  tons,  and  such  trains  frequently  attain  a  speed  of  seventy- 
five  miles  an  hour  for  short  distances.  Few  realize  the  enormous 
energy  represented  by  a  moving  passenger  train.  When  the  rela- 
tively light  rails  and  fastenings  which  carry  this  train  and  the  many 
curves  and  inequalities  of  the  track  which  it  must  traverse  are  con- 
sidered the  wonder  grows  that  accidents  are  not  more  frequent.  It  is 
not  due  to  chance  that  there  are  so  few  of  them,  for  many  of  the 
brightest  minds  of  the  world  are  continually  at  work  to  make  railroad 
travel  safer. 


TRANSPORTATION.  155 

Locomotive  Brakes.  The  chief  appliance  upon  which  the  safety 
of  the  train  depends  is  its  brakes ;  all  others,  to  a  greater  or  less  ex- 
tent, tell  the  engineer  when  to  shut  off  steam  or  use  the  brakes. 
With  few  exceptions  safety  is  synonymous  with  stopping  quickly  and 
easily  at  the  right  moment.  The  first  brake  not  operated  by  hand 
power  was  patented  by  Robert  Stephenson  in  1833.  It  was  a  steam 
driver  brake,  simple  and  effective.  The  brake  shoes  were  placed  be- 
low center  and  between  the  driving  wheels  of  the  engine,  connected 
by  a  toggle  joint  which  made  connection  with  an  ordinary  steam 
cylinder.  When  it  was  desired  to  apply  the  brakes,  steam  was 
admitted  to  the  cylinder,  and  the  toggle  joint  was  straightened  and 
the  brake  shoes  forced  against  the  wheels.  Although  the  best  of 
modern  brakes  are  constructed  upon  this  principle,  Stephenson  made 
but  little  use  of  it. 

Early  Brakes.  Then  came  a  class  of  brakes  the  plan  of  which 
was  to  raise  the  car  off  its  wheels  and  cause  it  to  slide  along  on  a  set 
of  runners  that  were  substituted  for  the  wheels  when  it  was  desired 
to  stop  the  train,  but  this  plan  did  not  long  survive  for  obvious  rea- 
sons. The  ordinary  hand  power  brakes  were  introduced.  These 
act  by  winding  a  chain  around  a  staff,  and  then  multiplying  the 
power  by  a  compound  system  of  levers  before  it  is  applied  to  the 
brake  shoes.  This  has  been  a  very  useful  system,  but  as  the  work 
can  be  done  better  and  more  cheaply  by  machine  than  by  hand  it  is 
disappearing.  Other  forms  of  brakes  were  those  operated  by 
hydraulic  power,  and  those  which  used  the  momentum  of  the  train 
to  wind  a  chain  on  the  car  axles  and  make  the  car  furnish  the  power 
to  stop  itself.  In  another  the  chain  was  wound  around  a  friction 
wheel  which  was  drawn  into  contact  with  the  car  axle  by  an  electro- 
magnet at  the  moment  when  the  brakes  were  to  be  applied.  This 
had  the  advantage  of  applying  the  brake  at  every  point  at  the  same 
instant  and  thus  all  bunching  of  the  cars  or  straining  of  the  coup- 


156  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

lings  was  avoided.  Improved  air  brakes  require  about  two  seconds  to 
apply  the  brakes  at  the  rear  end  of  a  long  train,  but  this  slight  delay 
has  not  proved  serious.  Brakes  to  be  most  effective  must  be  under 
the  instant  control  of  the  person  who  will  first  see  the  danger  and 
the  need  of  applying  them,  That  person  is  the  engineer  and  he  can 
apply  the  air  brake  almost  at  once  to  every  wheel  of  every  car  of 
the  train.  The  air  brake  is  the  only  one  with  which  this  is  possible. 
Of  the  different  air  brakes  the  Westinghouse  is  most  generally 
used. 

Westinghouse  Air  Brake.  The  first  air  brakes  made  their  ap- 
pearance about  1868,  but,  as  usual  with  new  appliances,  were  faulty. 
To  George  Westinghouse,  who  began  his  experiments  in  1869  and 
took  out  his  first  patent  in  1872,  more  than  to  any  other  man,  is  due 
the  credit  for  the  automatic  brake  that  can  stop  an  ordinary  freight 
train  within  its  own  length  and  bring  an  express  train  flying  sixty 
miles  an  hour  quickly  and  easily  to  a  standstill  within  less  than  a 
thousand  feet. 

Essential  Parts.  Underneath  nearly  every  passenger  coach  can 
be  seen  two  cylindrical  tanks.  These  are  reservoirs  holding  com- 
pressed air.  Each  reservoir  connects  with  a  cylinder  having  a  piston 
at  each  end.  The  pistons  are  attached  to  levers  connecting  with 
brake  shoes,  or  curved  pieces  of  metal,  applied  to  the  face  of  the  car 
wheels  to  retard  their  motion.  A  pipe,  called  a  train  pipe,  for  the 
conveyance  of  compressed  air,  runs  from  the  engine  to  every  car 
equipped  with  the  air  brake.  The  connections  between  each  car  are 
made  with  a  flexible  hose  having  coupling  joints.  The  first  West- 
inghouse brakes  were  of  the  "straight  air"  variety;  that  is,  the 
compressed  air  was  stored  in  a  cylinder  in  the  engine,  and  when  ap- 
plied through  the  train  pipe  set  the  brake  shoes  on  each  car.  By 
this  means  the  brakes  could  be  applied  by  the  engineer  as  forcibly  as 
he  chose,  a  desirable  feature,  but  in  case  of  a  train  breaking  in  two 


TRANSPORTATION.  157 

the  brakes  would  be  useless  when  they  were  most  needed.  Again 
the  urgent  need  brought  forth  the  remedy,  and  the  automatic  brake 
with  the  triple  valve  was  devised. 

Modern  Brake  and  its  Operation.  As  now  operated,  compressed 
air  is  stored  in  the  reservoir  of  each  car  by  means  of  a  steam  pump 
located  in  the  engine.  In  usual  service  the  pressure  in  the  reservoir 
of  the  car  is  about  70  pounds,  and  in  the  reservoir  in  the  cab,  about 
100  pounds.  Under  the  engineer's  left  hand  lies  a  lever  controlling 
the  air  brake  mechanism.  The  brake  is  almost  a  mechanical  para- 
dox, for  it  supplies  its  force  when  it  lets  go  and  releases  its  grip  when 
it  exerts  most  power.  If  the  engineer  wishes  to  apply  the  brakes  he 
moves  the  lever  and  cuts  off  the  reservoir  in  the  cab  from  the  train 
pipe.  The  pipe  being  relieved  of  the  100  pounds  pressure  from  the 
engine,  the  70  pounds  pressure  in  the  reservoir  under  each  car  is  free 
to  act.  This  it  does  by  forcing  out  the  pistons  in  each  cylinder, 
which  are  attached  to  the  long  levers  that  move  the  brake  shoes,  and 
the  brakes  are  applied  throughout  the  train.  To  release  the  brakes 
the  engineer  moves  the  lever  and  connects  the  reservoir  in  the  engine 
with  its  100  pounds  pressure  with  the  train  pipe.  This  overbalances 
the  pressure  in  the  reservoir  of  the  car,  the  pistons  are  forced  back, 
and  the  brakes  released.  It  is  obvious  that  an  accident  to  the  train 
pipe  which  relieves  it  from  the  pressure  in  the  engine  will  allow  the 
brakes  to  act  automatically. 

The  interlocking  switch  and  signal  system  is  so  efficient  that  it 
is  now  in  use  on  nearly  every  important  railroad  of  the  world.  A 
railroad  yard  is  a  labyrinth  of  tracks  and  switches.  If  it  were  left  to 
anyone  to  operate  the  switches  as  he  had  occasion  to  use  a  track, 
confusion  would  run  riot  and  innumerable  accidents  occur.  The 
combinations  that  can  be  made  by  even  a  limited  number  of  switches 
are  so  many  and  so  intricate  as  to  rival  a  Chinese  puzzle.  The  clear- 
est headed  man  is  liable  to  muddle  if  he  is  hurried.  Fortunately, 


158          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

the  system  can  be  reduced  to  mathematical  combinations  and  these 
worked  out  by  machinery.  For  example,  take  a  main  line  and  a 
branch  line  running  from  it,  the  junction  being  made  by  a  switch 
(facing  point)  where  the  inside  rail  narrows  down  to  a  point  and  con- 
nects with  the  outside  branch  rail  similarly  narrowed.  By  sliding 
the  point  rails  a  few  inches  one  side  or  the  other  across  the  track 
bed,  the  line  can  be  changed  from  main  to  branch  or  vice  versa.  To 
prevent  the  switch  from  moving  under  the  weight  of  the  train  and 
perhaps  causing  disaster,  the  switch  is  locked  in  its  proper  position. 
Before  the  switch  can  be  changed  from  one  position  to  another  it 
must  be  unlocked,  and  to  do  this  the  guard  rail  must  be  raised  above 
the  level  of  the  track.  This  cannot  be  done  while  the  switch  is  held 
down  by  the  weight  of  a  train.  The  switches  and  semaphore  signals 
are  moved  by  sets  of  levers  in  a  tower  built  beside  the  track  where  it 
will  afford  a  good  view.  The  signal  man  within  the  tower  operates 
the  system  by  means  of  the  levers.  Suppose  the  track  to  be  pre- 
pared for  a  train  to  pass  on  the  main  line.  The  switch  is  first  un- 
locked by  reversing  the  position  of  a  lever,  which  we  will  call  lever 
3  and  which  then  allows  lever  4  to  turn  the  switch  to  the  main 
line.  If  the  signal  man  then  tries  to  set  the  signals  that  the  main 
line  is  clear,  he  finds  that  lever  2,  which  should  work  the  "home" 
signal,  will  not  move.  The  reasdn  is  that  the  switch  has  not  been 
locked.  So  he  puts  lever  3  back  in  its  normal  position  and  thereby 
drops  the  guard  rail  and  locks  the  switch.  He  can  then  move  lever 
2  and  se't  the  semaphore  signal  at  "safety."  The  semaphore  will 
always  drop  to  "  danger"  unless  held  to  some  other  position.  Thus 
any  break  in  the  signal  mechanism  could  only  delay  traffic,  and  not 
endanger  the  train.  There  is  still  another  semaphore,  perhaps  half 
a  mile  down  the  track,  which  shows  the  engineer  the  condition  of  the 
switch  ahead  of  him.  It  is  yet  hanging  at  danger,  and  at  its  sight 
the  engineer  would  stop.  Lever  I  now  sets  this  at  safety.  If  the 


TRANSPORTATION.  159 

signalman  had  tried  to  move  it  to  safety  before  he  had  set  lever  2, 
or  the  home  semaphore,  it  would  not  have  moved.  As  it  is,  the 
switch  is  locked  in  position  and  all  the  signals  are  at  safety  and  the 
train  passes  on  the  main  line.  Suppose  another  train  following  it  is 
to  pass  on  to  the  branch.  If  the  signalman  tries  to  move  the  switch 
to  the  branch  line  by  lever  4,  he  finds  it  has  been  locked  by  lever  3. 
Lever  3  has  been  locked  by  lever  2,  and  that  in  turn  by  lever  I.  So 
he  places  lever  I  at  normal.  This  sets  the  distant  semaphore  at 
"danger"  and  releases  lever  2,  which  he  then  returns  to  normal, 
setting  the  home  semaphore  at  "danger  "and  unlocking  lever  3. 
Then  by  pulling  lever  3  back  he  unlocks  the  switch  and  turns  it  by 
the  aid  of  lever  4.  Then  the  switch  is  locked  by  lever  3,  and  signals 
2  and  i  set  in  turn  at  "  safety."  The  example  given  is  the  simplest 
possible  and  has  only  four  levers.  Such  is  the  working  of  the  inter- 
locking switch  and  signal  system,  which  makes  it  absolutely  impossi- 
ble to  make  an  improper  combination  of  the  switches  and  signals. 
All  that  a  drunken  or  careless  signalman  can  do  is  to  delay  traffic, 
for  the  signals  will  invariably  stop  at  danger  till  he  has  set  the 
proper  combination  and  established  a  clear  track.  What  a  maze 
must  be  the  switch  tower  of  the  London  bridge,  where  there  are 
nearly  300  levers!  Without  the  interlocking  system  no  human  mind 
could  successfully  operate  so  many  switches  and  signals. 

Where  the  tower  controls  a  short  section  the  switches  and  sema- 
phores are  operated  by  the  direct  leverage  from  the  tower  levers.  In 
most  cases  the  distance  is  so  great  that  compressed  air  at  each  switch 
and  signal  is  led  into  a  cylinder,  where  it  acts  upon  a  piston.  The 
valve  which  controls  the  air  is  operated  by  a  lever  in  the  tower. 
The  inventive  genius  of  Westinghouse  changed  the  signal  tower  from 
a  clumsy  array  of  great  levers  to  a  delicate  instrument.  The  valves 
which  control  the  switches  and  signals  are  connected  with  the  tower 
by  pipes  filled  with  a  liquid  that  will  not  freeze.  Compressed  air  is 


l6o  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

elastic,  and  there  is  lost  motion  and  lost  time.  The  liquid  transmits 
the  impulse  instantaneously  to  the  chamber  filled  with  compressed 
air.  In  the  old  style  all  the  work  was  done  by  the  signalman's 
strong  right  arm,  if  that  was  powerful  enough,  and  it  sometimes  was 
not.  The  levers  of  the  new  system  can  be  moved  by  a  finger's 
weight,  providing  they  are  moved  in  the  proper  order.  But  the 
interlocking  is  just  as  perfect,  and  it  is  impossible  to  move  a  lever  at 
the  wrong  time.  Mr.  Westinghouse  has  further  placed  in  front  of 
the  signalman's  eyes  a  model  on  which  every  switch  and  signal 
under  his  control  is  plainly  shown.  By  means  of  an  electric  device, 
the  movement  of  any  switch  or  signal  is  immediately  reproduced  on 
the  model.  By  its  help  the  signalman,  without  even  looking  out 
of  the  window,  can  tell  whether  his  switches  and  signals  are  working 
all  right. 

On  many  railroads  an  additional  safeguard  is  employed  to  pre- 
vent an  engineer  from  running  past  a  danger  signal.  Sometimes  the 
weather  is  foggy  and  sometimes  the  engineer  relaxes  his  vigilance  for 
an  instant.  Either  may  mean  a  wreck.  So  there  is  placed  beside 
the  track  at  each  signal  a  machine  which  slides  a  torpedo  out  on  the 
rail  when  the  line  is  not  clear.  If  the  engineer  runs  past  the  danger 
signal  the  torpedo  explodes  and  its  noise  warns  him.  But  his  dan- 
ger isn't  over  when  he  has  obeyed  the  torpedo.  If  he  cannot  give  a 
good  reason  why  he  ran  past  the  danger  signal,  he  is  suspended  for 
the  first  offense  and  discharged  for  the  second.  Such  discipline  has 
a  tendency  to  inculcate  a  deeply  rooted  respect  for  danger  signals. 
The  precautions  taken  at  railroad  crossings  are  familiar  to  all.  Grade 
crossings  are  gradually  becoming  obsolete.  In  the  cities  they  make 
the  operation  of  the  railroad  more  expensive,  for  they  require  the 
attendance  of  a  signalman,  force  the  trains  to  run  slower,  and  delay 
traffic. 

The  closed  vestibule,  which  allows  safe  passage  from  one  car  to 


TRANSPORTATION.  l6l 

another,  may  be  called  a  safety  device.  It  has  practical  efficiency  in 
other  ways,  for  it  strengthens  the  car  and  reduces  air  resistance. 
Two  or  more  tracks,  on  each  of  which  all  the  trains  are  moving  in 
one  direction,  also  conduces  to  simplicity  of  operation,  and  so  to  less 
expense,  increased  traffic,  and  added  safety. 

Steam  heating  and  electric  lighting  have  banished  the  old-time 
stove  and  the  oil  lamp,  and  with  them  disappeared  the  horror  of  the 

burning  wreck. 

TUNNELS. 

The  longest  tunnel  in  the  world  affording  passage  for  a  railroad  is 
that  of  St.  Gothard,  which  pierces  the  heart  of  the  Alps.  It  is  nine 
and  one  quarter  miles  in  length,  twenty-six 
feet  wide,  and  twenty-one  and  one  half  feet 
high.  It  cost  $i  i,  175,000,  or  about  $229  per 
foot  in  length,  consumed  nine  years  of  con- 
tinuous labor  in  building,  and  is  one  of  the 
greatest  feats  of  engineering  of  any  age.  The 
tunnel  under  the  pass  was  begun  in  1872,  and  gr  GQTHARD 
in  1 88 1  the  first  locomotive  passed  through. 

Wonders  of  the  St.  Gothard.  The  approaches  to  the  tunnel 
are  more  wonderful  than  the  tunnel  proper.  Between  Erstfeld  and 
Biasca  there  are  fifty-six  miles  of  railroad,  nineteen  miles  of  which  is 
tunnel.  This  distance  is  divided  between  twenty-one  tunnels  on  the 
Swiss  side  and  twelve  on  the  Italian  side.  The  mountains  are  so 
steep  that  to  get  the  trains  up  to  the  tunnel  level  a  most  novel 
method  was  resorted  to.  Four  of  the  approach  tunnels  on  each 
side  are  in  the  form  of  spirals,  for  when  it  became  impossible 
to  proceed  on  the  upward  path  by  building  the  road  in  a  groove 
cut  out  of  the  face  of  the  cliff,  the  engineers  plunged  into  the  face 
of  the  mountain  and  made  a  tunnel  which  described  a  complete 
circle  within  the  heart  of  the  mountain  and  emerged  high  above  the 


l62  THE   MARVELS   OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

point  where  it  entered.  There  are  four  such  loops  on  each  side  of 
the  pass  before  the  level  of  the  great  tunnel  is  reached.  During  the 
course  of  its  construction  4000  men  were  constantly  employed.  Im- 
provements in  rock  drills  and  compressed  air  machinery  lightened 
their  labors  and  enabled  them  to  progress  at  a  speed  never  before 
reached  in  tunnel  construction.  Ventilation  was  improved  by  carry- 
ing the  air  into  the  tunnel  in  great  pipes  and 
liberating  it  near  where  the  men  were  at 
work.  When  it  is  understood  that  without 
some  such  plan  there  is  no  circulation  of 
air  in  a  tunnel,  and  that  the  temperature  is 
frequently  far  above  100  degrees  Fahrenheit 
in  the  deeper  tunnels,  it  can  be  seen  what  a 
boon  this  was  to  the  men.  Dynamite  was 

ON   THE    ST.   GOTHARD  ,  , 

RAILWAY  perfected   and    superseded   gunpowder  as  a 

blasting   agent,   and   the    rate   at  which  the 

tunnel  could  be  built  increased  from  month  to  month  as  the  newer 
inventions  were  made  and  came  into  use.  Work  was  begun  at  each 
end,  and  when  the  two  ends  met  in  the  heart  of  the  mountain  only 
thirteen  inches  difference  was  found  in  the  direction  of  the  approach 
and  only  two  inches  in  the  level,  a  remarkable  tribute  to  engineering 
skill. 

The  St.  Gothard  tunnel  is  wholly  within  Swiss  territory,  but  the 
project  was  considered  so  important  and  of  so  much  advantage  to 
Northern  Italy  and  southern  and  southwestern  Germany  that  in  1869 
a  treaty  was  concluded  between  Italy,  Germany,  and  Switzerland  by 
which  they  agreed  to  become  partners  in  its  construction.  Italy 
contributed  45,000,000  francs,  the  others  20,000,000  francs  each. 
The  chief  difficulty  was  the  large  quantity  of  water  encountered, 
but  such  improvement  had  been  made  in  machinery  that  although 
the  St.  Gothard  tunnel  was  begun  only  a  year  after  the  Mt.  Cenis 


TRANSPORTATION.  1 63 

tunnel  was  completed,  progress  was  made  at  the  rate  of  14.6  feet 
per  day  for  the  former  to  8  feet  per  day  for  the  latter. 

Tunneling  under  Simplon  Pass.  Monsieur  Brandt  of  the  St. 
Gothard  tunnel  signed  a  contract  with  the  Jura-Simplon  Railroad 
Company  for  the  construction  of  two  tunnels  under  the  Simplon 
pass,  and  guaranteed  the  completion  of  the  main  tunnel  within  five 
and  one  half  years.  The  tunnel  must  be  completed  by  May  13, 
1904.  If  not,  the  contractors  are  liable  to  a  fine  of  $1000  a  day. 
If  completed  before  that  date  they  are  to  receive  a  premium  of  $1000 
a  day.  At  the  close  of  1899,  9653  feet  of  tunnel  had  been  made. 
A  series  of  ten  holes  is  bored  in  the  face  of  the  tunnel  and  a  blast 
put  in  and  exploded.  "Strange  to  say,  no  sound  of  the  explosion 
is  heard  a  thousand  yards  away  from  the  working  point,  and  yet  the 
air  pressure  at  that  distance  is  such  as  to  cause  pain  in  the  ears." 
At  the  instant  the  charge  is  exploded  in  the  bore  holes  a  huge  air  gun 
300  feet  long,  with  a  caliber  of  six  and  one  half  inches,  charged  with 
compressed  air  at  1500  pounds  pressure,  dashes  900  gallons  of  water 
against  the  falling  rock  and  washes  it  away  from  the  face  of  the  tunnel. 

When  completed,  this  tunnel,  connecting  the  valley  of  the  Upper 
Rhone  in  Switzerland  with  that  of  the  Diveria  in  Italy,  will  be 
about  twelve  and  one  fourth  miles  in  length  and  the  longest  railroad 
tunnel  in  the  world.  Instead  of  one  tunnel  there  will  be  two  small 
ones  about  fifty-eight  feet  apart  running  in  parallel  lines.  The  plans 
have  been  carefully  studied,  new  machinery  and  new  methods  in- 
troduced and  the  work  is  progressing  satisfactorily. 

The  Mont  Cenis  Tunnel  was  constructed  to  afford  railway  com- 
munication between  France  and  Italy.  It  was  begun  in  1857,  and 
opened  for  traffic  in  1871.  It  is  seven  and  one  half  miles  long  and 
extends  for  the  most  of  the  way  through  solid  rock.  The  tunnel 
was  begun  by  hand  drills,  but  rock  drills  operated  by  compressed  air 
created  a  new  epoch  in  mining  operations  and  made  it  possible  to 


164  THE   MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

progress  three  times  as  fast.  As  completed  the  tunnel  is  wide 
enough  for  a  double  track  railroad. 

The  Arlberg  Tunnel,  piercing  a  branch  of  the  Alps  in  Tyrol,  a 
province  of  Austria-Hungary,  was  begun  in  1880,  opened  in  1884, 
is  six  and  one  half  miles  in  length  and  occupied  three  years  and  nine 
months  in  construction.  Improvements  in  tunneling  machinery 
enabled  the  work  to  go  forward  at  the  rate  of  27.8  feet  per  day. 
About  1,760,000  pounds  of  dynamite  were  employed  for  blasting 
purposes.  The  contractor  finished  the  tunnel  420  days  ahead  of  his 
time  limit,  thereby  winning  a  bounty  of  about  $168,000.  The  tunnel 
cost  about  $154  per  foot. 

The  first  railroad  tunnel  in  America  was  the  Alleghany  Portage, 
running  through  a  spur  in  the  Alleghany  mountains.  It  was  901 
feet  long;  was  begun  in  1831  an'd  completed  in  1833. 

The  longest  railroad  tunnel  in  America  is  the  Hoosac,  on  the 
line  of  the  Fitchburg  railroad,  passing  through  the  Hoosac  moun- 
tains in  the  western  part  of  Massachusetts.  It  was  begun  in  1854, 
although  for  some  years  but  slow  progress  was  made,  due  to  financial 
difficulties  and  the  lack  of  machinery.  The  Hoosac  tunnel  passes 
under  two  mountains  with  a  valley  between.  The  bottom  of  the 
valley  is  about  1000  feet  above  the  top  of  the  tunnel,  and  in  this 
valley  a  shaft  was  sunk  to  the  proposed  depth  and  work  begun  in 
both  directions,  four  stretches  of  tunnel  being  in  progress  at  once. 
Its  total  cost  was  about  $11,000,000. 

The  Cascade  tunnel,  on  the  Northern  Pacific  railway,  begun  in 
1886,  was  completed  in  twenty-two  months  at  a  cost  of  $118  per 
foot.  The  tunnel  is  9850  feet  long  and  i6*4  feet  by  22  feet  in  sec- 
tion. The  machinery,  fuel,  and  supplies  were  hauled  over  100  miles, 
to  a  height  of  3970  feet,  on  roads  made  by  the  contractor  through 
hitherto  untraveled  country.  Bridges  were  built,  streams  dammed 
to  give  the  necessary  water  power,  and  the  whole  built  in  the  midst 
of  a  wilderness. 


TRANSPORTATION.  165 

The  tunnel  for  the  Great  Western  railway  of  England,  under  the 
Severn,  is  four  and  one  half  miles  in  length  and  was  commenced  in 
1873.  An  almost  uncontrollable  inpouring  of  water  was  encoun- 
tered, twice  causing  the  work  to  be  suspended,  but  the  tunnel  was 
finally  completed  and  the  first  train  passed  through  in  1886. 

The  Mersey  tunnel,  connecting  Liverpool  and  Birkenhead,  was 
begun  in  1881  and  completed  in  1886.  St.  Gothard  was  a  triumph 
of  surveying,  but  the  Mersey  tunnel  was  a  marvel.  It  is  23,615  feet 
in  length,  and,  when  the  two  ends  met  under  the  river,  their  lateral 
deviation  was  less  than  one  inch,  and  the  difference  in  level  was  just 
i-ioo  of  a  foot. 

At  Sarnia,  Ontario,  there  is  a  tunnel  6050  feet  in  length  under 
the  St.  Clair  river  through  which  the  Grand  Trunk  trains  dash  in  a 
trifle  over  one  minute. 

Constructing  a  tunnel  in  solid  rock  means  simply  the  blasting  of 
a  passage  through  it,  but  when  the  passage  extends  through  such 
materials  as  -  clay,  silt,  gravel,  sand,  or  any  strata  bearing  water, 
means  must  be  taken  to  prevent  caving  in  before  the  passageway  can 
be  arched  and  protected.  In  the  construction  of  the  St.  Gothard 
tunnel,  the  arches  lining  it  were  twice  crushed  and  were  finally  made 
of  cut  granite  blocks,  five  feet  thick  at  the  top  and  ten  feet  at  the 
sides. 

In  1825,  Brunell,  the  famous  British  engineer,  began  the  con- 
struction of  a  tunnel  under  the  Thames,  near  the  site  of  Trevithick's 
attempt,  two  miles  below  London  Bridge.  Soon  the  inpouring  mud 
and  sand  proved  too  much  for  the  existing  methods  of  engineering. 
Brunell  then  devised  a  shield  protecting  the  whole  face  of  the  tunnel 
and  containing  the  rude  germ  which  Beach  of  New  York  and  Great- 
head  of  England  have  improved  upon  and  made  the  tunneling  shield 
of  to-day. 

The    Greathead   Tunnel   Shield.     In    1869    the  Tower  subway 


l66  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

under  the  Thames  was  lined  with  cast-iron  plates.  These  have  since 
come  into  pretty  general  use  for  tunnels  and  subways.  In  1889  Mr. 
J.  H.  Greathead  completed  a  tunnel  under  the  Thames  for  the  South 
London  railway,  and  the  improvements  he  made  in  the  shield  and 
the  methods  he  employed  are  now  widely  used  wherever  the  strata 
to  be  penetrated  are  of  the  same  character.  Instead  of  lining  his 
tunnel  with  brickwork,  or  cut  stone,  he  employed  huge  cast-iron 
rings,  and  surrounded  them  with  a  layer  of  concrete.  Where  the 
conditions  and  the  magnitude  of  the  operation  warrant  the  expense 
of  the  Greathead  system  it  is  carried  on  about  as  follows :  Starting 
on  the  site  where  a  future  station  is  to  be  located,  a  shaft  is  sunk 
to  the  level  of  the  proposed  tunnel,  and  solidly  walled  with  brick 
and  cement.  Then  the  tunnel  is  started  from  the  shaft  in  opposite 
directions.  As  soon  as  work  is  enough  advanced  to  make  room  for 
it,  the  "  shield"  is  introduced.  The  shield  is  a  great  tube  of  steel 
of  the  shape  of  the  finished  tunnel,  and  a  little  greater  in  its  diame- 
ter than  the  diameter  of  the  cast-iron  rings  with  which  the  tunnel  is 
to  be  lined.  It  is  open  at  both  ends,  and  the  front  end  has  its  edges 
sharpened  to  a  cutting  edge.  It  is  long  enough  to  afford  room  for 
two  or  three  of  the  rings  twenty  inches  wide,  and  the  diggers  or 
"muckers"  who  work  at  the  face  of  the  tunnel.  As  the  tunnel  is 
not  circular,  but  slightly  oval,  the  rings  can  be  carried  through  the 
completed  portion  of  the  tunnel  by  turning  them  so  their  smallest 
diameter  will  coincide  with  the  greatest  diameter  of  the  tunnel. 
Brought  to  the  right  place  and  given  a  quarter  turn,  they  fit  exactly 
into  their  final  position.  Inside  the  shield  are  eight  projections. 
Against  them  rest  the  heads  of  eight  hydraulic  presses,  whose  bases 
butt  against  the  flange  of  the  last  ring.  Pressure  applied  by  these 
presses  forces  the  shield  forward  the  length  of  one  ring,  or  twenty 
inches.  The  diggers  remove  the  earth  thus  cut  loose.  Another 
ring  is  passed  forward  and  put  in  place.  Thus  the  work  goes  on, 


TRANSPORTATION.  167 

without  danger  of  a  cave-in.  Each  ring  has  a  flange  three  inches 
wide  pointing  inward.  A  tarred  rope  is  placed  between  them  and 
the  flanges  bolted  together,  making  a  tight  joint.  At  the  top, 
bottom,  and  sides  of  each  ring  are  small  holes.  Grout,  made  of 
Roman  cement,  is  forced,  under  a  pressure  of  thirty  pounds  to  the 
square  inch,  through  the  bottom  hole  until  it  appears  at  the  side 
holes.  It  is  then  forced  through  the  top  hole  till  no  more  can  enter. 
Thus  the  space  outside  the  rings  is  filled  with  what  becomes  as  hard 
as  stone.  The  cement  protects  the  rings  and  prevents  water  from 
entering.  It  also  stiffens  the  rings,  and  does  away  with  vibration 
and  much  noise  that  at  first  rendered  subways  objectionable.  Only 
20  inches  are  exposed  without  a  rigid  support,  and  this  only  while 
the  shield  is  forced  ahead  one  ring  length,  the  ring  placed  in  position 
and  the  grout  introduced.  Greathead's  tunnel  passed  under  the  pier  of 
the  Southwestern  railway's  Thames  Bridge.  The  directors  tried  to 
stop  the  tunnel  for  fear  it  would  injure  the  foundation  of  the  bridge. 
When  they  made  their  demand  they  learned,  much  to  their  surprise, 
that  the  tunnel  had  passed  their  foundation  and  a  half  a  mile  beyond. 
They  withdrew  their  objection. 

If  water,  quicksand,  or  mud  is  encountered,  and  danger  is  an- 
ticipated, doors  are  built  in  the  rear  of  the  shield  through  which 
the  workmen  can  escape  in  an  emergency,  and  close  the  doors  be- 
hind them.  Partitions  are  built  in  the  tunnel  back  of  the  shield  and 
compressed  air  pumped  in.  This  helps  to  hold  the  water  back  and 
prevents  caving.  The  cutting  end  of  the  shield  is  sometimes  partly 
closed  to  prevent  the  ingress  of  earth  faster  than  it  can  be  handled. 

When  conditions  are  such  as  to  require  the  use  of  compressed  air 
some  method  is  necessary  to  remove  the  earth  without  decreasing  the 
pressure.  Sometimes  there  is  a  second  compressed  air  chamber, 
back  of  the  forward  one,  into  which  the  dust  is  first  thrown  and  from 
there  shoveled  to  the  tunnel  proper. 


168  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

A  tunnel  passing  beneath  the  Thames  came  so  close  to  the  water 
that  it  was  feared  the  air  pressure  within  would  burst  through  the 
thin  layer  of  earth  and  the  tunnel  be  flooded.  To  overcome  this, 
clay  was  dumped  into  the  bed  of  the  river  over  the  course  of  the 
tunnel.  This  gave  sufficient  weight  to  resist  the  air  pressure,  helped 
to  keep  out  the  water,  and  was  afterward  dredged  out  when  the 
tunnel  was  completed. 

Sometimes  in  city  work,  tunnels  pass  near  foundations  of  build- 
ings or  under  streets  and  the  shield  method  would  be  too  expensive 
to  use.  Steel  plates  (u  needles  ")  tongued  and  grooved  like  matched 
boards  are  used.  These  are  forced  ahead  in  the  direction  of  the 
tunnel  and  the  earth  underneath  removed  for  a  portion  of  their 
length.  The  iron  lining  of  the  tunnel  is  placed  in  position  behind 
the  "  needles  "  and  the  space  filled  with  concrete.  As  fast  as  re- 
quired the  needles  are  forced  ahead  by  jackscrews  or  hydraulic 
presses,  exerting  a  force  of  perhaps  3000  pounds;  quite  sufficient  to 
drive  out  of  the  way  any  small-sized  bowlder  they  might  encounter. 
This  method  is  cheaper  than  using  a  shield. 

RAPID  TRANSIT. 

One  solution  of  the  crowded  tenement  house  problem  is  to 
enable  people  to  live  where  there  is  more  room  and  to  go  to  and 
from  their  work  quickly  and  cheaply.  When  the  street  car  com- 
panies proposed  an  electric  conduit  system  in  Boston,  a  committee 
of  eminent  citizens  opposed  more  rapid  transit  facilities.  They 
argued  it  was  better  and  healthier  to  walk  than  to  ride.  The  person 
whose  time  is  money  does  not  take  that  view  of  rapid  transit. 
' 'Rapid  transit"  is  of  recent  origin.  The  lack  of  it  in  early  cities 
kept  shops  small,  and  each  shopkeeper  lived  in  his  shop.  Those 
engaged  in  manufacturing  lived  in  their  small  factories.  These,  from 
the  nature  of  the  conditions,  were  small  and  always  worked  at  a 


TRANSPORTATION.  169 

great  waste.  The  co-operative  plan  was  not  possible  owing  to  the 
restricted  transportation  facilities  both  for  men  and  for  goods.  Such 
conditions  render  a  large  city  almost  unendurable.  In  early  times 
people  recognized  this  and  walled  their  cities  with  the  double  purpose 
of  protection  and  of  limiting  their  further  growth.  The  literature 
of  the  Middle  Ages  constantly  laments  the  tendency  of  mankind  to 
crowd  into  cities.  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  the  famous  architect,  in 
making  a  new  plan  for  London  after  its  great  fire,  proposed  to  check 
its  growth  by  arranging  the  graveyards  in  a  ring  around  the  city.  It 
was  urged  in  Parliament  that  a  new  bridge  across  the  Thames  would 
cause  so  many  people  to  come  to  London  that  they  could  not  be 
fed. 

In  a  modern  city  a  different  problem  presents  itself.  In  one  part 
is  found  the  financial  center;  in  another  the  manufacturing  industries 
are  centered ;  in  a  third  are  located  the  wholesale  houses,  while  in  a 
fourth  are  grouped  the  retail  stores ;  last  of  all  are  the  residences  of 
the  people  daily  employed  in  these  various  parts  of  the  city.  If  the 
people  had  to  walk  to  and  from  their  places  of  employment  as  in 
former  times,  they  would  do.  nothing  but  walk,  for  the  modern  city 
covers  an  area  never  dreamed  of  two  centuries  ago.  The  life  of  a 
great  city  depends  upon  its  rapid  transit  facilities.  Cabs  and  omni- 
buses answer  for  a  time ;  horse  cars  double  the  available  area  of  a 
city ;  cable  and  electric  cars  a  little  more  than  quadruple  it.  Still 
the  cry  is  for  ampler  and  swifter  means  of  transportation.  This  is 
the  problem  the  engineers  of  to-day  are  facing.  The  traffic  on  the 
street  railroads  of  large  cities  is  enormous,  and  the  better  the  facili- 
ties the  more  strenuous  are  the  demands  for  improvement. 

Growth  of  Rapid  Transit.  Prior  to  1830  nearly  all  the  business 
of  New  York  city  was  transacted  below  Canal  street  and  nearly  all 
the  residences  were  below  I4th  street.  In  1831  John  Stephenson 
put  in  operation  the  first  street  car  drawn  by  horses.  "  A  track  of 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


M* 


NORKISTOWN  JiAlL-ROAl}' 

Locomotive   R*j»i,ie,  (built. 


plate  iron  bars  spiked  to  timbers  resting  on  stone  blocks  was  laid  on 
the  Bowery  and  Fourth  avenue,  on  Prince  street  to  the  Harlem 
river."  The  project  was  not  a  success  and  was  abandoned  to  be  re- 
sumed in  1845.  Horse  car  lines  appeared  in  Boston  in  1856,  in 
Philadelphia  in  1857,  in  New  Orleans  in  1861.  A  line  was  con- 

___ „______ structed    in    France   in 

*-iiun*.~^£^  M     l85Ij    and  it    was  not 

until  1870  that  they 
were  allowed  in  Lon- 
don. The  horse  car 
extended  the  area  of 
New  York  northward, 
while  the  ferry  boats 
built  up  Brooklyn  and 
Jersey  City.  Surface 
lines  were  followed  in 
1878  by  elevated  lines 
operated  by  steam,  but 
they  were  inadequate 
to  meet  the  demands 
and  more  were  built, 
every  available 


tj  at  the 


FIRST  RAILROAD  ADVERTISEMENT  IN  AMERICA. 
TIME-TABLE  OF  THE  PHILADELPHIA,  GERMANTOWN  AND 

NORKISTOWN  RAILROAD  IN   1832.  until 


street  was  utilized.  In  1900  electricity  as  a  motive  power  was  sub- 
stituted for  steam  on  the  elevated  railroads  of  New  York.  Now 
there  is  in  progress  a  monster  subway,  and  in  a  few  years  even  this 
will  probably  be  insufficient. 

Cable  Roads.  In  1873  Andrew  Halidie  built  in  San  Francisco 
the  first  "  cable  road."  Power  was  furnished  by  a  stationary  steam 
engine  revolving  a  band  wheel  around  which  was  passed  a  long  end- 
less wire  cable.  The  cable  was  carried  on  pulleys  in  a  channel  (con- 
duit) underneath  the  roadbed.  The  conduit  was  covered  by  iron 


TRANSPORTATION.  I /I 

plates  separated  by  a  narrow  slot  running  the  length  of  the  street. 
Flat  bars  passed  down  from  the  cars  through  the  slot  to  the  cable 
and  they  were  enabled  to  grasp  or  release  by  means  of  "  grips." 
The  cable  being  set  in  motion  and  the  grip  applied  the  car  was 
dragged  along.  When  the  grips  were  released  the  car  could  be 
easily  stopped  by  an  ordinary  brake.  The  cable  system  was  used 
in  Chicago  in  1881,  on  the  Brooklyn  bridge  in  1883,  in  London  in 
1884. 

American  vs.  European  System.  By  the  American  system  a 
man  can  ride  from  the  crowded  part  of  the  city  to  his  home  in  the 
suburbs  for  five  cents.  In  European  cities  the  charge  is  made  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  miles  traveled,  and  the  same  trip  would 
cost  more  than  twice  as  much.  The  cost  becomes  so  great  for  the 
laborer  as  to  make  his  living  in  the  suburbs  an  impossibility. 

In  Berlin  in  1885  there  were  but  2820  private  houses.  Of  the 
population  of  1,122,000,  900,000  lived  in  tenements;  478,000  of 
these  lived  in  houses  of  one  room  that  could  be  heated;  302,000  in 
houses  of  two  rooms;  and  101,000  in  cellar  and  underground  tene- 
ments. The  wages  earned  were  not  enough  to  enable  them  to  live 
at  more  than  a  walking  distance  from  their  places  of  employment. 
This  condition  of  affairs  is  well  contrasted  with  Somerville,  a  suburb 
of  Boston.  In  this  city  there  are  about  7000  houses  and  the  popu- 
lation averages  only  about  5.9  persons  per  house,  or  about  the  same 
as  in  well  settled  country  districts.  These  people  live  in  a  comforta- 
ble town  only  five  miles,  or  one  half  hour's  time,  from  their  work 
in  Boston.  The  necessary  trip  costs  only  ten  cents  per  day.  All 
the  benefits  of  a  healthful  home,  and  the  comforts  of  a  suburban 
residence,  are  made  possible  to  every  wage  earner,  and  the  cost  is 
actually  less  than  would  be  his  share  of  the  municipal  burden  if  he 
were  to  live  in  the  center  of  the  great  city. 

Political  Significance.      All  this  has  been  made  possible  for  him 


I/2  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

by,  as  Emerson  has  it,  "  paving  the  roads  with  iron  bars."  "The 
dangers  to  our  republican  form  of  government  arise  largely  from  the 
overcrowding  of  people  in  the  great  cities,  reducing  the  minimum  of 
intelligence,  making  slaves  of  the  wage  earners,  and  rendering  easy 
the  control  of  votes  for  corrupt  purposes.  With  the.  scattering  of 
industries  under  the  highest  development  of  rapid  transit,  the  condi- 
tions prevailing  in  the  great  cities  may  be  so  modified  as  to  rapidly 
advance  the  higher  ideals  of  government.  The  necessity  for  the 
concentration  of  people  behind  fortified  walls  gave  to  Europe  its 
feudal  system."  * 

ELECTRIC  RAILWAYS. 

As  might  be  expected,  there  are  many  claimants  for  the  honor  of 
first    applying    electrical    energy    for    traction     purposes.      Thomas 

Davenport  of  Brandon,  Vt.,  in  1835 
made  a  model  electric  car  and  exhib- 
ited it  on  a  circular  track.  Daven- 
port's model  carried  the  battery  that 
supplied  the  electrical  energy  for  use 

in  its  electric  motor. 
RETIRED  FROM 

BUSINESS.  ^n     I»39     Robert    Davidson,     a 

Scotchman,  moved  a  railway  car  six- 
teen feet  long,  weighing  six  tons,  at  the  rate  of  four  miles  an  hour. 
In  1851  Professor  Page  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  exhibited  an 
electric  locomotive  and  drew  a  light  train  on  the  Baltimore  and 
Washington  railway  at  the  rate  of  nineteen  miles  an  hour.  All  these 
motors  derived  their  power  from  voltaic  batteries,  which  were  ex- 
pensive. However,  the  possibility  was  proved  and  the  principle 
awaited  the  cheapening  of  electric  power. 

It  came  with  the  invention  of  the  dynamo,  and  the  steam  engine, 
the  dynamo  and  the  electric  motor  formed  a  magic  circle.     The  steam 

*  John  Brisben  Walker. 


TRANSPORTATION.  173 

engine  develops  the  mechanical  power,  which  the  dynamo  takes  and 
turns  into  electrical  energy;  the  electric  motor  takes  the  energy 
furnished  by  the  dynamo  and  turns  it  back  into  mechanical  power. 
A  dynamo  cannot  create  energy ;  it  can  only  change  the  form  of 
that  furnished  it  by  the  steam  engine. 

Accidental  Discovery..  It  has  been  said  that  the  electric  motor 
owes  much  to  an  accident.  At  the  Vienna  Exposition  in  1873  a 
workman  was  making  the  connection  for  some  Gramme  dynamos. 
By  mistake  he  connected  one  to  a  dynamo  in  operation.  To  his 
great  surprise  the  dynamo  he  connected  began  to  revolve  in  the 
opposite  direction  and  the  discovery  was  made  that  the  motor  and 
the  dynamo  were  practically  identical  in  structure.  From  that  time 
numerous  experiments  were  made  in  Europe  and  America  by  the 
ablest  inventors  of  the  times. 

First  American  Line.  Siemens  and  Halske  of  Berlin  are  usually 
credited  with  having  produced  in  1881  the  first  financially  successful 
electric  street  railway.  In  1888  a  complete  electric  road  was  oper- 
ated in  Richmond,  Va.  The  new  method  gave  such  good  service 
that  according  to  Mulhall  there  were  in  the  United  States  and  Can- 
ada in  1890  about  645  miles  of  street  railway  operated  by  electricity. 
At  the  close  of  the  century  it  was  estimated  that  there  were  nearly 
20,000  miles,  employing  200,000  men. 

Electricity  has  the  following  advantages  as  a  motive  power  for 
rapid  transit :  — 

Power  can  be  produced  cheaper  at  a  stationary  plant  than  in  a 
locomotive.  Mechanically  stoked  boilers  can  dispense  with  the  fire- 
men and  burn,  economically,  slack  coal  unfit  for  use  in  a  locomotive 
furnace.  The  best  stationary  plants  can  produce  a  horse-power-hour 
on  about  a  pound  of  good  coal.  Large  compound  condensing  en- 
gines can  produce  power  without  increasing  the  waste  proportionately. 
With  the  relatively  smaller  force  of  firemen  and  engineers  in  the  sta- 
tionary plant  the  cost  is  less  for  labor. 


1/4  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

The  repair  bill  of  a  stationary  plant  is  less  than  for  locomotives 
subject  to  all  the  accidents  and  rough  usage  of  the  road. 

The  "adhesion"  of  wheel  to  rail  is  much  greater  in  the  electric- 
ally driven  car  system,  because  the  weight  of  the  whole  train  is  dis- 
tributed over  the  axles  to  which  the  power  is  applied,  and  they  do 
not  turn  as  "  dead"  wheels,  as  they  do  in  an  ordinary  railroad  train. 
The  current  connecting  wheel  and  rail  seems  also  to  increase  the 
adhesion. 

The  power  can  be  applied  to  all  the  wheels,  and  the  adhesion  of 
all  the  wheels  can  be  used  to  apply  propulsive  power. 

With  the  electric  system  there  is  absolute  freedom  from  smoke 
and  cinders. 

All  the  parts  of  the  electric  motor  move  continuously  in  one 
direction.  This  is  the  ideal  condition  in  all  machines.  The  recipro- 
cating parts  of  a  locomotive  must  at  every  stroke  be  brought  to  a 
dead  standstill  and  then  started  in  the  opposite  direction. 

The  storage  battery,  which  stores  up  surplus  power  when  it  is  not 
needed  and  gives  it  out  when  it  is  needed,  has  greatly  cheapened  the 
cost  of  operating  electric  railways. 

Patronized  by  Hundreds  of  Millions.  It  is  estimated  that  in 
New  York  city  there  is  a  daily  passenger  fare  equal  to  1,643,000  per- 
sons, or  a  yearly  movement  of  about  600,000,000,  and  over  one  half 
of  these  come  and  go  from  the  comparatively  small  area  .below  Canal 
street. 

In  1898  the  total  passenger  movement  in  the  city  of  Paris  was 
288,582,000,  and  in  1889,  the  year  of  the  previous  Exposition,  it 
was  340,000,000.  In  1890  the  passenger  movement  in  London  was 
estimated  at  988,000,000. 

For  the  last  fifty  years  one  of  the  greatest  problems  of  a  city  has 
been  how  to  carry  its  people  to  and  from  their  work  with  the  least 
loss  of  time.  Well  might  Mr.  Whitney,  in  an  address  to  the 


TRANSPORTATION.  175 

Massachusetts  legislature,  say,  "While  you  are  legislating  under 
this  roof  to  reduce  the  hours  of  labor,  the  West  End  Railway  Co., 
by  simply  changing  its  system  to  a  more  rapid  one,  has  reduced  the 
hours  of  labor  nearly  half  an  hour  per  day." 

All  the  available  streets  having  been  covered  with  surface  lines 
and  elevated  roads,  and  the  flying  machine  not  yet  perfected,  the 
insistent  demands  for  rapid  transit  forced  the  engineer  to  emulate 
the  mole.  By  going  underground  he  could  use  space  not  available 
for  other  purposes  and  propel  his  trains  at  a  higher  speed  than  would 
be  safe  in  streets  used  in  common  with  vehicles  and  pedestrians. 
The  plan  has  succeeded,  but  no  small  amount  of  missionary  work 
was  necessary  to  remove  the  prejudices  of  property  owners  beneath 
whose  feet  the  tunnels  passed  and  to  allay  the  fears  of  timid  trav- 
elers, 

SUBWAYS. 

The  subway  has  been  called  in  to  supplement  the  transportation 
facilities  of  a  city  where  there  are  already  in  active  operation  all  the 
lines  for  which  there  is  room  on  its  surface.  Subways  and  tunnels, 
although  synonymous  in  the  popular  mind,  are  not,  strictly  speaking, 
the  same,  for  the  subway  is  usually  a  ditch  before  it  is  a  tunnel. 

London  set  the  fashion  for  underground  railroads  by  opening 
in  1863  one  three  miles  in  length.  Since  then  others  have  been  built 
and  units  constructed  independently  have  been  connected  until  there 
is  now  quite  an  extensive  underground  rapid  transit  system.  In 
1900  there  was  opened  for  traffic  the  Central  London  railway,  the 
third  of  its  kind,  six  and  one  half  miles  long,  running  from  the  Bank 
of  London,  the  center  of  London's  commercial  activity,  to  Shep- 
herd's Bush,  west.  The  clay  soil  through  which  it  passed  was  favor- 
able for  the  operation  of  the  Greathead  Shield,  and  as  the  tunnel  ran 
under  the  streets  of  the  city,  nothing  was  paid  to  private  property 
owners  for  right  of  way.  The  road  cost  about  $2,500,000  per  mile, 


176  THE   MARVELS   OF   MODERN   MECHANISM. 

which  is  cheap  for  roads  of  that  character.  It  is  equipped  with  8- 
wheel  electric  locomotives,  thirty  feet  in  length  and  each  weighing 
about  forty-eight  tons.  The  road  is  operated  with  electricity  as  a 
motive  power,  taking  it  from  a  third  rail.  It  was  intended  to  equip 
the  road  with  British  locomotives,  but  no  British  manufacturer, 
owing  to  trade  union  restrictions  making  it  difficult  to  employ  work- 
men on  extra  time,  would  guarantee  the  delivery  of  the  locomotives 
within  the  time  necessary,  so  the  order  went  to  the  General  Electric 
Company  at  Schenectady,  N.  Y.  Each  train  with  its  locomotive 
will  weigh  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  tons.  The  cars  are  of  the 
American  plan,  with  a  corridor  extending  down  the  center,  and  will 
seat  three  hundred  and  thirty-six  passengers.  The  power  is  fur- 
nished by  sixteen  Babcock  and  Wilcox  water  tube  boilers  having  a 
combined  heating  surface  of  nearly  an  acre  and  a-  half.  The  sta- 
tions on  this  road  are  all  at  the  tops  of  grades  (slight  hills).  This 
feature  possesses  two  advantages  :  the  up  grade  assists  in  bringing  the 
train  to  a  stop  at  a  station ;  the  down  grade  makes  it  easier  to  start. 
Boston's  subway.  Boston  has  a  system  which  employs  a  sub- 
way in  the  congested  portion  of  the  city  and  an  elevated  road  in  the 
less  crowded  parts.  In  the  side  walls  of  the  Boston  subway  are 
vertical  steel  pillars.  The  pillars  are  connected  by  arches  made  of 
concrete.  The  arches  stand  on  end  (have  their  axes  vertical)  with 
their  convex  sides  facing  outward.  The  vertical  arches  along  the 
sides  give  the  side  walls  a  peculiar  scalloped  or  corrugated  appearance, 
but  it  was  constructed  in  that  manner  to  enable  the  walls  to  resist 
the  side  pressure  due  to  heavy  traffic  and  the  weight  of  buildings. 
The  roof  is  of  steel  beams  connected  by  arches  of  concrete  or  brick. 
New  York's  Subways.  New  York  city  will  have,  when  it  is 
completed,  the  most  complete  and  fully  equipped  underground  system 
of  any  yet  devised.  As  now  planned  it  will  run  from  the  City  Hall 
park  nearly  north  to  Forty-second  street,  westward  on  Forty-second 


TRANSPORTATION.  1/7 

street  to  Sixth  avenue,  under  it  and  Broadway  for  a  considerable  dis- 
tance to  iO4th  street,  where  it  branches,  one  branch  continuing 
north  and  the  other  northeast  to  the  Bronx  river.  The  branches 
will  be  large  enough  for  a  double  track  road  ;  the  main  line  for  four 
tracks.  Two  tracks  of  the  system  will  be  reserved  for  express 
trains,  which  will  be  run  at  a  high  speed  and  make  few  stops.  In 
the  vicinity  of  the  City  Hall  the  subway  will  carry  its  tracks  in  two 
stories;  two  tracks  above  and  two  below.  It  is  expected  that  the 
express  trains  will  make  a  trip  from  City  Hall  to  the  Harlem  in  not 
far  from  fifteen  minutes.  The  whole  contract  was  awarded  to 
John  B.  McDonald  for  $35,000,000,  probably  the  largest  contract 
that  a  single  individual  ever  undertook.  The  ground  was  formally 
broken  in  front  of  the  City  Hall,  March  21,  1900,  Mayor  Van 
Wyck  turning  the  first  spadeful  of  earth.  Actual  work  was  com- 
menced on  May  14,  1900.  It  is  expected  the  subway  will  be  com- 
pleted within  three  or  four  years  from  the  time  of  its  inception. 
The  natural  conditions  are  rather  favorable.  The  greater  part  of  it 
will  be  constructed  by  the  "cut  and  cover  method,"  tunneling  being 
necessary  only  for  a  comparatively  short  distance  and  then  through 
rock,  where  the  use  of  a  shield  will  not  be  required.  The  east 
branch  will  be  about  four  hundred  feet  in  length  where  it  passes 
under  the  Harlem  river,  and  caissons  can  there  be  used  at  less  ex- 
pense than  a  shield.  It  is  now  planned  to  extend  the  tunnel  from 
City  Hall  park  to  Bowling  Green,  thence  under  the  East  river  to 
Brooklyn  City  Hall.  In  passing  under  the  river  the  tracks  will  be 
carried  in  two  cast  iron  tubes  each  fifteen  feet  in  diameter  and  afford- 
ing room  for  one  line  of  track.  The  contemplated  extension  is  four 
and  one  half  miles,  and  one  and  one  half  miles  of  it  would  be  of 
cast  iron  tubing.  The  New  York  subway  will  consist  of  a  steel  and 
concrete  water  tight  conduit.  The  following  is  the  general  method 
of  construction: — 


1/8  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

Method  of  Construction.  As  the  great  ditch  is  dug  the  bottom 
is  covered  with  a  layer  of  concrete.  Over  this  a  layer  of  hot  asphalt 
is  poured  and  smoothed  down ;  on  the  asphalt  is  laid  a  sheet  of 
felt,  then  another  layer  of  asphalt,  and  the  process  repeated  as  often 
as  the  character  of  the  ground  may  seem  to  render  it  necessary  to 
keep  out  moisture.  The  waterproofing  is  covered  with  another 
layer  of  concrete  in  which  are  set  the  bases  for  the  tracks  and  the 
pedestals  for  the  steel  columns  intended  to  complete  the  sides  and 
carry  the  weight  of  the  roof.  The  sides  and  roof  are  given  the  con- 
crete and  waterproof  coating  as  well  and  the  whole  subway  made 
water  tight.  When  completed  it  will  be  superior  to  all  others,  in 
capacity,  ventilation,  lighting,  and  efficiency. 

The  rolling  platform  at  the  Paris  Exposition  proved  popular. 
It  consisted  of  three  parallel  paths:  the  first  a  stationary  one  3.5 
feet  wide;  the  second  or  middle  one  3  feet  wide,  moving  at  the 
rate  of  2.6  miles  an  hour;  the  third  path,  6.5  feet  wide,  and  moving 
in  the  same  direction  as  the  second  at  the  rate  of  5.25  miles  an  hour. 
The  system,  3400  yards  long,  was  driven  by  a  number  of  electric 
motors  at  fixed  points  in  its  course.  To  the  shafts  at  these  motors 
were  fixed  two  pulleys  of  different  sizes.  The  large  pulley  helped 
move  the  high  speed  platform,  and  the  smaller  pulley  the  low  speed 
platform.  The  platform  was  divided  into  short  lengths,  so  joined 
that  it  would  round  curves  easily  and  leave  no  dangerous  gaps. 
Passengers  were  carried  to  the  stationary  way  by  means  of  ramps. 
On  such  a  system  the  middle  platform  moves  so  slowly  that  one  can 
step  upon  it  from  the  stationary  platform  and  be  canned  along  by  it 
as  fast  as  a  moderate  walk.  Then  the  difference  between  the  low 
speed  and  the  high  speed  platforms  is  so  little  a  man  can  step  from 
the  low  speed  to  the  high  speed  platform  and  find  himself  moving  at 
the  rate  of  5.25  miles  an  hour.  He  can  add  to  the  motion  of  the 
platform  his  own  speed  by  walking  in  the  direction  in  which  the  plat- 


TRANSPORTATION.  1 79 

form  is  moving.  If  he  wishes  more  time  to  look  at  anything  along 
the  way,  he  can  walk  in  the  opposite  direction,  step  upon  the  mid- 
dle platform,  or  even  step  off  upon  the  stationary  one  at  any  point. 

Moving  Platforms  vs.  Elevators.  The  Paris  moving  platform 
was  twenty  feet  above  the  street  level,  and  to  bring  the  passengers 
up  to  it  the  company  employed  broad,  thick,  strong,  endless  belts 
(ramps),  each  running  over  two  large  pulleys  so  set  that  the  belt,  at 
a  gentle  incline,  moved  continuously,  its  upper  surface  carrying  up 
anything  placed  upon  it.  The  belt  was  stiffened  and  run  on 
numerous  rollers.  Standing  upon  it  one  had  no  feeling  of  insecurity. 
It  was  given  a  vertical  speed  of  one  foot  per  second.  Anyone  wish- 
ing to  go  faster  could  do  so  by  simply  walking  in  the  direction  in 
which  the  ramp  moved.  In  competition  with  a  modern  elevator  of 
the  best  type,  the  two  working  continuously,  the  ramp  lifted  4000 
people  twenty  feet  in  one  hour,  as  against  400  for  the  elevator. 
There  has  been  installed  on  the  Third  Avenue  elevated  railroad  of 
New  York  city  a  ramp  able  to  lift  3000  passengers  an  hour  from  the 
street  to  the  level  of  the  platform.  The  receipts  at  the  ticket  office 
where  it  is  in  use  show  that  the  device  is  popular  with  the  public. 

Rapid  Transit  by  Means  of  Moving  Platforms.  A  system  of 
moving  platforms  has  often  been  urged  for  rapid  transit  in  great 
cities.  By  increasing  the  platforms  any  desired  speed  could  be 
attained.  Passengers  could  travel  slowly  by  remaining  on  one  of 
the  intermediate  platforms.  There  would  not  be  the  trouble  of 
stopping  and  starting,  for  the  passengers  could  board  the  platforms 
and  leave  them  at  any  time  or  any  place.  A  street  car  stopping  for 
a  passenger  usually  loses  from  five  to  ten  seconds  of  time.  There  is 
a  further  loss  of  energy,  employed  to  stop  and  start  the  car.  The 
aggregate  loss  of  time  and  energy  in  a  city  where  there  are  600,000,- 
ooo  fares  collected  in  a  year  assumes  no  small  proportions. 


180  THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

WHEELED  VEHICLES. 

The  first  wheeled  vehicles  probably  resembled  the  rude  bullock 
carts  now  in  use  in  India.  These  consist  of  two  solid  wheels  made 
by  cutting  off  the  end  of  a  log,  a  hole  made  through  the  heart,  a 
box-like  body  with  a  solid  beam  crossing  it  underneath,  the  ends  of 
the  beam  rounded  and  thrust  through  the  holes  in  the  blocks.  The 
wheels  are  kept  in  place  by  a  pin  through  each  end  of  the  beam.  A 
rude  pole  is  attached,  to  which  are  fastened  the  cattle.  Such  vehi- 
cles, which  go  crawling  across  the  plains  of  India  or  Southern  Africa, 
their  ungreased  axles  sending  out  shrieks  of  protest  that  can  be  heard 
for  a  thousand  yards,  are  a  fair  type  of  man's  first  carriage.  The 
Egyptians  and  Assyrians  made  considerable  advance  in  the  building 
of  chariots,  gradually  developing  the  wheel  until  it  consisted  of  a 
hub,  spokes,  felloes,  and  a  bronze  tire.  The  box-like  body  and  solid 
axle  were  retained  and  nothing  was  known  of  springs.  The  war 
chariots  had  huge  bronze  scythes  attached  to  their  axles,  and  when 
driven  at  high  speed  through  a  mass  of  men  created  dire  havoc. 
They  could  be  operated  only  on  smooth  ground. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  the  carriage  had  acquired 
two  more  wheels  and  had  come  to  represent  a  mark  of  rank  or 
wealth.  Its  lack  of  springs  and  the  extreme  discomfort  attendant 
upon  riding  in  it  over  an  uneven  surface  probably  had  some  influence 
in  inducing  the  Romans  to  build  smooth  as  well  as  durable  roads. 
With  the  decline  of  Rome  and  the  advent  of  the  Dark  Ages  the  roads 
fell  into  such  a  horrible  condition  that  wheeled  vehicles  practically 
disappeared.  All  the  carrying  trade  of  Europe  was  conducted  by 
means  of  horses,  asses,  and  mules,  bearing  pack  saddles.  As  late  as 
1550  there  were  only  three  rude  coaches  in  Paris.  The  coach  of 
state  was  introduced  into  England  in  1555  for  Queen  Elizabeth.  It 
was  a  strong,  clumsy,  four-wheeled  vehicle  without  springs  of  any 


TRANSPORTATION.  1 8 1 

kind,  and  a  modern  ice-wagon  with  a  little  decoration  would  appear 
like  a  palace  car  beside  it.  At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury heavy  lumbering  wagons  drawn  by  eight,  ten,  or  twelve  horses, 
carried  the  freight  from  city  to  city.  At  the  rear  end  of  each  wagon 
was  a  small  space  covered  with  straw,  into  which  half  a  dozen  passen- 
gers could  be  crowded,  sitting  upon  the  straw,  for  want  of  other 
seats.  In  1750  the  first  line  of  stagecoaches  was  established  between 
London  and  Birmingham,  and  in  good  weather  they  were  able  to  make 
the  trip  of  116  miles  in  three  days  and  three  nights.  An  expert 
bicycle  rider  can  now  easily  make  the  same  distance  from  sun  to  sun. 

In  1754  the  first  stagecoach  line  was  established  between  Lon- 
don and  Edinburgh  and  it  was  advertised  that  "a  two-end  glass 
coach  machine  hung  on  steel  springs,  exceedingly  light  and  easy,  will 
go  through  in  ten  days  in  summer  and  twelve  in  winter,  the  passen- 
gers lying  over  during  the  Sabbath  at  one  of  the  villages  on  the 
route."  The  distance  is  about  400  miles,  and  the  Great  Northern 
railway  now  makes  it  in  eight  or  ten  hours. 

Steel  springs  for  coaches  came  into  use  about  1750  and  with  the 
imprpvements  of  roads  due  to  Macadam,  Telford,  and  other  engi- 
neers, the  development  of  the  modern  carriage  began. 

Alexander's  chariot  was  about  as  comfortable  as  a  city  dump  cart, 
and  the  coach  of  state  of  Caesar  could  not  compare  for  strength, 
comfort,  efficiency,  and  speed  with  a  modern  brewery  wagon. 

First  Bicycles.  It  is  evident  that  good  bicycles  could  not  pre- 
cede good  roads.  As  early  as  1779  the  primitive  ancestor  of  the 
bicycle,  afterward  known  as  the  "hobby  horse,"  was  described. 
This  machine  consisted  of  a  bar  of  wood  with  a  wheel  at  each  end  in 
the  same  plane.  The  rider,  sitting  astride  the  bar,  propelled  the 
machine  by  pushing  against  the  ground  with  his  feet.  Improved 
upon  by  Baron  von  Drais  in  1816,  it  was  called  the  "Draisine." 
This  machine  had  a  saddle ;  the  front  wheel  was  guided  by  a  handle- 


1 82          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

bar;  rests  supported  the  elbows,  and  leaning  his  weight  upon  them 
the  operator  propelled  the  machine  by  striking  the  tips  of  his  toes 
against  the  ground.  This  was  popular  in  the  cities  for  a  time,  and 
in  various  forms  was  called  the  "  Draisine,"  "  velocipede,"  "  dandy 
horse,"  and  "  celerifere,"  but  the  mode  of  propulsion  was  the  same 
in  all. 

In  1840-41  a  Scotch  inventor  named  McMillan  made  a  bicycle 
built  of  wood,  having  pedals  and  cranks,  and  connected  the  rear  wheel 
with  his  cranks  by  "connecting  rods."  In  1846  Dalzell,  another 
Scotchman,  improved  upon  McMillan's  machine  and  was  able  to 
travel  with  it  as  fast  as  the  ordinary  coach. 

From  "The  Boneshaker"  to  Pneumatic  Tires.  In  1855  Ernst 
Michaux,  a  French  inventor,  first  applied  the  cranks  and  pedals  di- 
rectly to  the  driving  wheel.  Michaux's  invention  is  generally  con- 
sidered the  germ  of  the  modern  bicycle,  and  France  has  erected  a 
monument  to  his  memory.  Michaux  was  a  locksmith  with  but  little 
capital,  and  not  much  was  done  with  his  machine.  In  1.866  another 
Frenchman,  Pierre  Lallament,  took  out  a  patent  in  France  and  the 
United  States  for  an  improvement  of  Michaux's  machine,  and;  for  a 
time  was  supposed  to  be  the  real  inventor.  From  1866  until  1870 
the  "  boneshaker,"  as  it  came  to  be  called,  had  quite  a  popular  run. 
Then  wheels  began  to  be  made  of  all  iron  and  steel  and  the  front 
wheel  grew  larger,  producing  the  familiar  high  wheel  of  some  years 
ago.  To  avoid  "headers,"  which  were  frequent  with  the  high 
wheel,  the  little  wheel  was  put  ahead  and  the  rear  one  connected  to 
the  pedals  by  straps  or  ratchet  wheels.  From  this  the  transition  to 
the  "  safety  "  of  to-day  was  rapid,  but  the  one  thing  that  more  than 
anything  else  made  the  bicycle  popular  was  the  application  of  the 
pneumatic  tire.  This  was  invented  by  R.  W.  Thompson  in  1845, 
but  it  was  not  designed  for  the  bicycle.  It  was  applied  to  the  bi- 
cycle by  Dunlop  in  1889,  and  the  weight  rapidly  came  down  from 


TRANSPORTATION.  183 

the  hundred  pound  machines  to  the  light  roadsters  of  twenty  pounds 
or  less. 

The  bicycle  of  to-day  is  a  marvel  of  strength  and  lightness,  and 
is  responsible  for  many  improvements  in  other  machines.  Among 
them  are  the  principles  of  ball  bearings,  suspension  wheels,  seamless 
steel  tubing,  and  the  pneumatic  tire.  It  has  been  one  of  the  most 
potent  factors  in  the  development  of  good  roads,  for  the  presence  in 
the  United  States  and  Canada  of  a  million  bicyclers  who  are  also" 
voters  has  been  felt  in  the  legislation  pertaining  to  improved  high- 
ways. In  1896  the  United  States  Congress  established  a  national 
bureau  of  highways  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  states  in  the  con- 
struction of  scientific  roads.  All  military  powers  have  given  con- 
siderable attention  to  the  application  of  the  bicycle  to  military  use, 
and  in  nearly  all  armies  bicycle  corps  are  formed. 

Marvelous  rates  of  speed  have  been  attained  with  it,  and  rec- 
ords are  broken  every  day  of  the  racing  season.  In  1899  Murphy, 
riding  on  a  plank  path  between  the  rails  of  the  Long  Island  railroad 
behind  a  train  with  a  hood  built  over  it  to  shield  him  from  the  wind, 
made  a  mile  in  fifty-seven  and  four  fifths  seconds,  and  was  picked  up 
bodily  by  his  friends,  wheel  and  all,  and  drawn  on  board  the  train 
while  it  was  in  motion. 

Ocean  cables  and  bicycles  are  rapidly  using  up  the  visible  supply 
of  rubber.  As  an  example  of  the  growth  of  the  business,  the  Pope 
Manufacturing  Company  in  1888  employed  500  hands,  and  at  the 
close  of  the  century,  3800.  It  is  estimated  that  the  United  States 
alone  annually  turns  out  $30,000,000  to  $40,000,000  worth  of 
bicycles. 

THE  AUTOMOBILE. 

Without  question  the  greatest  advance  in  transportation  within  a 
few  years  is  represented  by  the  automobile,  yet  the  welcome  it  met 
has  been  no  exception  to  the  general  rule  that  improvements  are 


1 84          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

usually  coolly  received  by  the  public,  who  are  prone  to  say,  "It  will 
not  work";  next,  "It  is  dangerous";  finally,  "  Every  one  knew  it 
before." 

Although  the  development  of  the  automobile  has  been  so  rapid 
that  it  is  not  even  described  in  some  of  the  latest  encyclopedias,  yet 

the  idea  is  older  than  that  of  the 
locomotive.  The  steam  carriage  of 
Cugnot  was  operated  on  the  road. 
Patents  were  issued  to  Watt  for 
the  application  of  steam  to  road 
carriages.  Even  Trevithick,  the 
father  of  the  locomotive,  tried  his. 
THE  FIRST  HORSELESS  CARRIAGE.  first  carriage  on  the  road,  and  it 

was  due  to  its  success  on  rails,  the  wretched  state  of  the  roads,  and 
the  violent  opposition  of  all  interested  in  stagecoaches,  inns,  canals, 
and  kindred  interests,  that  the  locomotive  outstripped  the  auto- 
mobile. 

Automobiles  not  New.  Cugnot  produced  a  successful  model  in 
1763.*  He  was  employed  by  the  French  government  in  1769  to 
make  a  three  wheeled  steam  carriage  for  transporting  cannon.  There 
are  many  stories  of  his  adventures.  One  relates  that  one  of  his  ma- 
chines having  overturned  in  the  streets  of  Paris,  the  authorities  were 
at  a  loss  whether  to  treat  him  as  a  genius  or  a  culprit,  and  with  strict 
impartiality  imprisoned  him,  released  him,  and  gave  him  a  pension. 
Cugnot  is  certainly  the  pioneer  in  steam  road  carriages. 

In  1822  Sir  Goldsworthy  Gurney,  a  scientist  of  no  mean  abili- 
ties, constructed  several  steam  carriages  which  were  successfully 
operated  about  London,  but  met  with  so  much  opposition  from 
rival  interests  as  to  render  them  unprofitable. 

In    1833   a  machinist  named  Squire,  aided  by  a  financial  backer, 
*  See  page  70 


UNIVERSITY 


TRANSPORTATION.  185 

Colonel  Macerone,  built  several  practical  steam  carriages,  one  of 
which  is  said  to  have  drawn  a  carriage  1700  miles  without  any  re- 
pairs. It  was  capable  of  making  an  average  speed  of  seventeen 
miles  an  hour,  and  coke,  which  was  used  for  fuel,  cost  seven  cents  a 
mile.  These  coaches  were  efficient  and  but  for  the  bitter  opposition 
of  the  stagecoaches  and  allied  interests  could  have  done  a  profitable 
business. 

The  automobile  developed  enough  to  be  commercially  practicable 
by  the  year  1857,  when  the  British  government  passed  a  law  restrict- 
ing their  speed  to  two  thirds  that  of  a  stagecoach.  This  was  fol- 
lowed in  1865  by  a  law  which  was  designed  to  suppress  them  as  a 
dangerous  nuisance.  It  would  not  be  hard  to  guess  what  motives 
inspired  such  legislation.  Horse  dealers,  innkeepers,  stage  drivers, 
and  some  workmen  feared  the  new  machine  would  rob  them  of  their 
bread  and  butter.  The  same  spirit  of  ignorance,  violence,  and  con- 
servatism was  responsible  for  the  destruction  of  Denis  Papin's  first 
steamboat  and  the  textile  machinery  in  English  factories.  It  finds 
its  latest  expression  in  restrictions  upon  the  British  manufacturer 
that  render  him  at  a  disadvantage  in  some  respects  with  his  Ameri- 
can competitor,  and  which  are  responsible  for  the  American  locomo- 
tives on  the  Midland  railway  of  England,  the  filling  by  an  American 
bridge  company  of  Kitchener's  hurry  order  for  the  bridge  at  Atbara, 
and  the  appearance  of  American  bridges  in  India. 

The  "Auto's"  Hard  Struggle.  The  English  law  of  1865  pro- 
vided that  each  machine  must  have  three  drivers  with  it,  one  of 
whom  was  to  precede  the  carriage  on  foot  at  a  distance  of  sixty 
yards,  and  to  carry  a  red  flag  to  warn  all  persons  that  the  carriage 
was  approaching.  There  wjere  to  be  no  whistles  blown  and  no  steam 
was  to  be  blown  off.  This  forced  the  engines  to  work  at  low  pres- 
sure. Any  driver  of  a  horse  could  compel  the  drivers  of  the  auto- 
mobile to  stop  at  any  point  and  for  any  length  of  time  by  simply 


1 86          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

raising  his  hand,  and  to  disobey  the  signal  meant  a  severe  fine.  The 
speed  of  the  carriages  in  the  country  was  not  to  exceed  four  miles 
an  hour,  and  in  the  towns  it  was  never  to  be  higher  than  two  miles 
an  hour.  The  name  and  residence  of  the  owner  of  the  carriage  were 
to  be  painted  conspicuously  on  the  carriage.  The  hours  when  it 
dared  to  venture  out  on  the  public  road  were  to  be  regulated  by  the 
local  authorities  of  each  borough.  As  if  these  regulations  were  not 
stringent  enough,  more  were  added  in  1878.  Each  automobile  was 
taxed  £10  a.  year  in  each  borough  in  which  it  was  operated.  The 
first  law  covered  only  steam  carriages,  but  this  law  was  extended  to 
include  "  a  locomotive  propelled  by  steam  or  by  any  other  than  ani- 
mal power."  The  automobile  was  restricted  to  certain  hours,  which 
were  seldom  the  same  in  adjacent  boroughs.  In  Gloucestershire 
they  were  allowed  to  run  only  between  the  hours  of  8  P.M.  and  4 
A.M.  These  absurd  laws  stood  until  1896. 

As  early  as  1878,  in  France,  there  were  purchased  at  county  ex- 
pense several  traction  engines  in  every  county  and  these  were  reg- 
ularly loaned  to  the  small  farmers  to  transport  their  crops  to  market. 
It  is  significant  that  in  the  year  1898  there  was  $150,000,000  of 
French  capital  invested  in  the  manufacture  of  automobiles,  and  this 
manufacture  gave  employment  to  200,000  people.  Never  before  was 
there  such  a  demand  for  skilled  labor  as  that  which  the  revival  of  the 
automobile  caused  in  France. 

Its  Final  Ascendency.  What  the  "  Rainhill  Contest"  was  to 
the  steam  locomotive,  the  automobile  race  of  July  22,  1894,  was  to 
the  history  of  the  automobile.  The  race  was  arranged  by  Le  Petit 
Journal  and  the  course  was  from  Paris  to  Rouen,  a  distance  of 
seventy-nine  miles.  There  were  nineteen  competitors  in  the  race  and 
seventeen  of  them  finished  at  times  ranging  from  eight  to  thirteen 
and  one  half  hours.  The  greatest  speed  attained  on  this  trial  was 
eighteen  miles  an  hour.  Numerous  other  races  followed.  Since 


TRANSPORTATION.  187 

these  contests  the  growth  of   the  automobile  in  public  favor  has  been 
rapid  and  steady. 

Advantage  of  Rubber  Tires.  Nearly  all  automobiles  have  either 
pneumatic  or  cushion  rubber  tires.  Traction  engines  have  spikes  or 
iron  strips  on  their  tires  to  avoid  slipping,  but  the  resulting  jar  would 
not  do  for  an  automobile,  so  the  rubber  tire  is  used  instead.  The 
rubber  tire  has  another  advantage,  it  saves  power,  for  no  road  is  per- 
fectly smooth.  Even  if  the  bits  of  gravel  average  no  more  than  one 
eighth  inch  in  size,  it  takes  power  to  lift  the  wheel  over  it.  If  a 
machine  weighs  two  tons,  then  there  will  be  1000  pounds  bearing  on 
each  wheel.  Each  time  a  wheel  passes  needlessly  over  an  elevation 
of  one  eighth  inch,  10.4  foot-pounds  of  work  is  wasted.  Four  wheels 
each  having  to  pass  over  such  an  obstacle  five  times  a  second  at  the 
ordinary  running  speed  would  amount  to  208  foot-pounds  per  sec- 
ond, or  12,480  per  minute, —  almost  one  half  a  horse-power.  Auto- 
mobiles are  seldom  fitted  with  engines  above  four  horse  power,  so  a 
saving  of  half  a  horse-power  is  quite  an  item.  The  pneumatic  tire 
saves  because  the  pebbles  cause  little  dents  in  the  tire  and  the  axle  of 
the  wheel  runs  in  a  straight  line.  Nor  is  this  all,  for  part  of  the 
power  that  is  used  in  the  production  of  the  dent  is  stored  in  the 
elasticity  of  the  tire  and  as  the  wheel  passes  to  the  point  where  it  is 
free  of  the  little  elevation,  the  elastic  force  of  the  tire  helps  push 
against  it. 

Means  of  Propulsion.  At  present  the  principal  means  used  for 
propelling  automobiles  are  steam  engines,  gasoline  engines,  and  elec- 
tricity. The  ''Locomobile"  is  a  good  representative  of  the  steam 
carriage  and  is  shown  in  the  accompanying  illustration.  It  effect- 
ually conceals  a  complete  boiler  and  furnace,  a  water  and  a  fuel 
supply  tank,  and  a  four  horse-power  steam  engine.  The  water  and 
fuel  supply  tanks  are  stowed  in  the  box-shaped  part  behind  the  seat, 
while  under  the  seat  is  the  boiler,  furnace,  and  engine.  The  boiler, 


188 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


14  inches  in  diameter  and  14  inches  high,  is  made  of  copper,  and  has 
298  copper  tubes,  giving  the  little  boiler  42  square  feet  of  heating 
surface.  The  boiler  is  wound  with  two  thicknesses  of  piano  wire, 
which  gives  it  great  strength.  In  fact  each  boiler  is  hydraulically 

tested  to  a  pressure  of  600 
pounds  to  the  square  inch. 
The  wire  wrapping  is  cov- 
ered with  asbestos  to  pre- 
vent the  radiation  of  heat. 
The  boiler  complete  weighs 
only  105  pounds. 
The   fuel  is  gas- 
oline   and     the 
boiler  pressure  is 
controlled  by  an 
automatic  device 
which     regulates 
the   size     of    the 
LOCOMOBILE.  fire  to  correspond 

np^rlc  r»f 
,-p,. 

The 

fire  may  be  lighted  and  the  steam  pressure  raised  to  150  pounds 
inside  of  five  minutes  from  the  time  of  starting  with  a  cold  boiler. 
When  the  vehicle  is  carrying  enough  water  and  fuel  for  a  run  of  25 
miles,  the  whole  affair  weighs  only  550  pounds. 

As  a  Climber.  Double  engines  allow  each  drive  wheel  inde- 
pendent rotation.  The  engine,  at  a  speed  of  300  revolutions  per 
minute,  develops  four  horse-power,  and  the  power  may  be  increased 
to  five  horse-power  if  necessary  for  a  short  time.  On  one  test  run 
of  72  miles,  the  cost  for  fuel  was  only  17  ^  cents.  The  machine  is 
geared  to  climb  very  steep  hills  and  has  ascended  a  36  per  cent,  in- 


This  is  one  of  the  steam  driven  automobiles.     It  contains  a  steam  boiler  and  w1*rVi 
furnace,  as  well  as  a  four  horse  power  steam  engine.       Yet  the  lines  of  the  cus-   n 
ternary  carriage  have  not  been  departed  from  in  its  construction.  ,         ,       .. 

the  boiler. 


TRANSPORTATION.  189 

cline.  The  inventor,  F.  O.  Stanley,  and  his  wife,  made  one  of  the 
first  long  distance  runs  with  a  locomobile  from  Newton,  Mass.,  to 
the  summit  of  Mount  Washington,  a  distance  of  205  miles,  at  an 
average  speed  of  14.1  miles  an  hour.  The  grade  of  the  ascent  of  the 
mountain  averages  12  per  cent.,  and  the  machine  climbed  it  in  two 
hours  and  ten  minutes. 

An  explosive  mixture  of  gasoline  and  air  is  the  power  most  gen- 
erally used  in  France  and  throughout  Europe.  A  motor  of  this 
class  carried  off  the  first  prizes  at  the  French  race  in  1894,  which  did 
so  much  to  excite  interest  in  the  automobile.  The  application  of 
this  power  is  said  to  date  back  to  Mr.  Pinkus  of  England.  Lenoir 
of  France  used  it  about  1860  and  is  a  pioneer  in  its  use  in  that  coun- 
try. Some  natural  disadvantages  of  gasoline  have  been  largely 
overcome.  Gas  engines  were  ordinarily  heavy,  but  if  "  adhesion"  is 
a  quality  greatly  to  be  desired  the  weight  of  the  gas  engine  will 
answer  that  perhaps  as  well  as  the  weight  of  a  storage  battery,  and 
gas  engines  are  more  economical  than  steam  engines.  At  first  there 
was  considerable  difficulty  in  getting  a  gas  engine  that  would  start 
promptly,  but  in  the  best  types  this  has  been  overcome.  Once  it 
was  impossible  to  change  the  speed  of  a  gas  engine  without  changing 
the  gear,  but  improvements  in  the  mechanism  regulating  the  explo- 
sion have  been  devised  by  which  instant  changes  can  be  made  almost 
as  effectively  as  with  a  throttle  valve  on  a  steam  engine.  Owing  to 
the  high  temperature  at  which  gas  engines  work  the  escape  is  neces- 
sarily noisy,  but  to  overcome  this  "  mufflers"  have  been  provided 

Considerable  interest  attaches  to  gas  engines  just  at  present  be- 
cause of  the  infringement  suits  likely  to  be  instituted.  George  B. 
Selden  made  application  for  a  patent  May  8,  1879,  f°r  a  roa<^  engine 
driven  by  a  hydrocarbon  motor,  and  a  patent  was  finally  granted  him 
November  5,  1895.  When  the  patent  was  applied  for  there  was  not 
much  public  interest  in  automobiles  in  America.  Mr.  Selden  was  a 


19°          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

patent  attorney  and  a  shrewd  one.  "  Under  the  law  in  force  up  to 
1879  an  application  for  a  patent  could  not  be  considered  to  have  been 
abandoned  if  prosecuted  within  two  years  after  the  last  official  action. 
By  complying  with  the  letter  of  the  law  Mr.  Selden  managed  to  delay 

the  granting  of  his 
patent  for  sixteen 
and  one  half  years."* 
His  claim  is  a  broad 
one,  and  if  sustained 
•^  will  embarrass  many 
manufacturers  of  au- 
tomobiles using  gaso- 
line engines  as  a  mo- 
tive power.  The  use 

ELECTRIC  AUTOMOBILE.     BUILT  BY  THE  ELECTRIC  VEHICLE   of    gasoline    presents 
Co.  OF  HARTFORD,  CT. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  customary  forms  of  vehicles  have  been  as    OIie     ao-vantage. 
closely  followed  as  possible,  this  one  being  on  the  lines  of  the  phaeton.  i          r  J  1 

can  be  found  at  al- 
most any  country  store  and  renders  machines  using  it  as  a  motive 
power  especially  fitted  for  touring  purposes. 

Electric  motors  were  early  applied  to  vehicles,  dating  back  to 
Davenport,  Becker,  and  Stratingh  in  1835,  and  mention  has  already 
been  made  of  others.  Despite  the  great  weight  of  the  storage  bat- 
teries the  electric  automobile  is  popular.  The  electric  motor  is  the 
simplest  form  of  machine  possible.  One  moving  part  and  a  station- 
ary support.  It  transforms  energy  with  less  waste  than  any  other 
device  for  the  production  of  mechanical  energy  yet  known.  There  is 
no  fire,  heat,  or  odor  connected  with  its  use,  and  no  danger  of  an 
explosion.  The  speed  can  be  instantly  changed  by  varying  the  cur- 
rent supplied  to  the  motor.  A  two  horse-power  motor  at  ordinary 
speed  exerts  about  sixty  pounds  tractive  power.  If  the  necessity 

* 'Scientific  American,  November  24,  1900. 


TRANSPORTATION.  19! 

arises  this  same  motor  can,  without  injury,  exert  a  pull  of  800  pounds. 
Such  a  reserve  power  is  sometimes  convenient. 

The  weight  of  the  storage  batteries  is  likely  to  be  reduced  in  the 
near  future,  for  the  chemical  change  necessary  for  a  horse-power- 
hour  requires  only  about  eleven  pounds  of  material.  By  reducing 
the  weight  of  the  container,  the  supports  for  the  plates,  and  the  bat- 
tery fluid,  a  saving  could  be  made.  Batteries  are  made  and  used  in 
automobiles  furnishing  power  for  from  80  to  100  miles.  Such  can 
be  recharged  in  an  hour  and  a  half,  so  it  seems  that  practical  utility 
is  nearly  approximated.  t 

An  automobile  truck  is  being  made  employing  a  steam  engine  to 
compress  air,  which  is  drawn  from  a  reservoir  and  used  as  a  motive 
power  by  the  truck.  The  force  required  to  hold  the  truck  back  in 
going  down  grades  is  also  used  to  assist  the  engine  in  compressing 
air.  Automobiles  using  liquid  air  as  a  motive  power  have  been  ex- 
hibited, and  the  Tripler  Company  have  stated  that  they  are  ready  to 
furnish  liquid  air  for  them  at  fifteen  cents  a  gallon.  The  practical 
efficiency  of  such  a  machine  has  yet  to  be  demonstrated. 

Some  remarkable  speed  records  have  been  made  by  the  auto- 
mobile. In  August,  1897,  105  miles  were  covered  at  the  rate  of 
twenty-six  miles  an  hour.  In  July,  1898,  this  record  was  raised  to 
thirty  miles  an  hour  for  357.3  miles.  In  a  nine  days  race  around 
France,  a  distance  of  428  miles  was  covered  by  the  winner  in  44 
hours  44  minutes  and  9  seconds,  an  average  of  about  thirty-two 
miles  an  hour. 

Automobile  vs.  the  Express  Train.  Monsieur  Charron  of 
France  won,  at  the  Paris  Exposition,  the  International  Challenge  Cup, 
June  14,  1900,  the  course  being  from  Paris  to  Lyons,  351  miles; 
time,  nine  hours  nine  minutes;  average  speed,  38.4  miles  an  hour. 
The  regular  express,  train  between  those  cities,  by  a  shorter  route, 
318  miles,  covers  the  distance  in  nine  hours.  Had  Monsieur  Char- 


IQ2         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

ron's  route  been  as  short  he  would  have  beaten  the  time  of  the  ex- 
press train.  Another  of  the  contestants  made  62  miles  an  hour  for 
a  considerable  part  of  the  distance  and  in  some  places  his  speed  was 
over  70  miles  an  hour,  but  his  machine  was  broken  by  an  accident 
which  prevented  his  winning  the  race.  He  showed,  however,  what 
bursts  of  speed  are  possible  on  an  ordinary  road,  and  M.  Charron 
proved  that  the  automobile  can  maintain  a  high  speed  for  a  long 
distance. 

The  question  of  the  use  of  automobiles  in  the  French  army  is  re- 
ceiving a  good  deal  of  attention.  Emperor  William  of  Germany  has 
offered  a  prize  of  $20,000  for  the  machine  best  adapted  for  use  in 
military  service. 

AERIAL  NAVIGATION. 

Although  for  thousands  of  years  mankind  .has  longed  for  "the 
wings  of  a  dove,"  the  Montgolfier  brothers'  crude  balloons  were  the 
first  practical  step  toward  the  realization  of  the  dream  of  aerial  navi- 
gation. It  was  in  France  that  after  several  unsuccessful  experiments 
Stephen  and  Joseph  Montgolfier  constructed  a  balloon,  inflated  it 
with  hot  air,  and  gave  a  successful  exhibition  of  it  June,  1783.  It 
does  not  appear  that  this  balloon  carried  any  passengers.  In  August 
of  the  same  year  M.  Charles,  a  Parisian  scientist  of  considerable  repute, 
improved  upon  Montgolfier's  idea  by  substituting  hydrogen  gas  for 
hot  air,  and  the  Robert  brothers  constructed  it  for  him.  In  such  a 
balloon,  MM.  Charles  and  Robert  made  a  successful  ascension,  reach- 
ing a  height  of  7000  feet.  In  November  of  1783  Pilatre  de  Rozier 
ascended  in  a  Montgolfier  hot  air  balloon.  It  is  generally  believed 
that  this  antedates  the  ascension  of  MM.  Charles  and  Robert.  These 
were  the  first  balloon  ascensions  and  they  were  made  at  or  near 
Paris,  and  France  has  ever  since  been  keenly  alive  to  the  importance 
of  aerial  navigation  and;  ready  to  lend  aid  to  any  other  project  that 
seemed  to  promise  its  successful  achievement. 


TRANSPORTATION.  193 

Balloons  rise  because  filled  with  some  gas  lighter  than  atmospheric 
air.  Balloons  inflated  with  ordinary  illuminating  gas  lift  about  one 
pound  for  each  thirty  cubic  feet  of  their  contents.  Hydrogen  gas 
has  about  twice  the  buoyancy  of  illuminating  gas.  The  buoyancy 
of  hot  air  depends,  of  course,  upon  the  difference  between  its  tem- 
perature and  that  of  the  surrounding  atmosphere.  Glaisher  and  the 
aeronaut  Coxwell  are  said  to  have  reached  an  extreme  height  of 
37,000  feet.  As  for  long  distance  records,  John  Wise  is  said  to 
have  made  the  trip  from  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  to  Jefferson  county,  N.  Y., 
1200  miles,  in  twenty  hours. 

Early  Ideas  of  Air  Ships.  A  letter  dated  May  24,  1784,  writ- 
ten by  Francis  Hopkinson  to  Benjamin  Franklin,  suggests  that  a  bal- 
loon be  made  oblong  and  driven  by  a  wheel  at  its  stern.  "This 
wheel  should  consist  of  many  vanes  or  fans  whose  planes  should  be 
considerably  inclined  with  respect  to  the  plane  of  its  motion,  exactly 
like  the  wheel  of  a  smokejack."  It  was  not  until  many  years  after- 
ward that  Stevens,  Smith,  and  Ericsson  were  able  to  successfully  ap- 
ply the  screw  propeller  here  outlined  to  steam  navigation,  and  it  is 
worthy  of  note  that  Professor  Langley  and  Mr.  Maxim  used  this 
principle  in  their  latest  flying  machines. 

Henri  Giffard,  the  inventor  of  the  "injector,"  in  1852  made  a 
balloon  large  enough  to  carry  a  steam  engine  and  the  machinery  to 
turn  a  screw  propeller.  He  was  actually  able  to  move  his  air  ship 
fast  enough  so  it  could  be  steered  to  some  extent,  and  produced  the 
first  balloon  in  any  considerable  degree  dirigible  (steerable). 

In  1 88 1  the  brothers  Tissander  equipped  a  balloon  with  a  storage 
battery  and  electric  motor,  and  were  able  to  make  seven  or  eight 
miles  an  hour  with  it.  Napoleon  hoped  to  make  the  balloon  useful 
to  him  in  his  campaigns  and  took  a  ballooning  outfit  with  him  into 
Egypt  but  it  was  captured  by  the  British.  When  Paris  was  besieged 
(1870—71)  more  than  fifty  balloons  were  employed  to  carry  persons 


194  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

out  of  the  city,  taking  with  them  carrier  pigeons  by  which  messages 
could  be  sent  back  to  the  besieged.  Even  fashion  plates  from  Paris 
for  the  use  of  English  and  American  magazines  were  said  to  have 
been  sent  out  in  this  manner.  In  1884,  Captains  Renard  and  Krebs 
used  an  electric  battery  and  motor  to  drive  a  screw  propeller  seven 
feet  in  diameter  to  propel  a  balloon  165  feet  long,  and  27^  feet  in 
diameter.  This  balloon  was  to  be  able  to  make  12  to  15  miles  an 
hour  and  was  readily  manageable  in  a  calm,  or  even  in  a  light  breeze. 

The  Russian  Dirigible  Balloon.  The  Russians  have  a  fairly 
good  dirigible  balloon  capable  of  carrying  one  man.  It  is  that  of  Dr. 
K.  Danilewsky,  Charkov,  Russia,  who  partly  fills  a  balloon  with  pure 
hydrogen  gas  to  balance  the  weight  of  the  operator.  In  a  recent 
exhibition  before  Russian  officers  the  balloon  was  taken  out  of  the 
barn  on  his  estate  in  which  it  was  kept,  and  inflated  in  a  half  hour. 
It  ascended,  passed  out  of  sight,  reappeared  in  about  two  hours, 
gradually  approached  and  alighted  within  a  few  yards  of  the  place 
from  whence  it  started.  The  balloon  is  small,  requires  the  service 
of  only  three  or  four  men  to  start  it,  and  when  inflated  can  be  carried 
anywhere  by  two  men.  It  is  propelled  by  the  muscular  power  of  the 
operator.  It  seems  to  be  but  little  influenced  by  moderate  currents 
of  air  and  the  descent  is  absolutely  under  control.  The  Russian 
officers  expressed  a  high  opinion  of  its  value  for  making  a  recon- 
naissance. 

Count  Zeppelin,  an  officer  of  the  German  army,  was  attracted 
to  the  study  of  dirigible  balloons,  primarily  to  develop  a  new  de- 
structive weapon  of  war.  Fortunately  he  is  a  man  of  wealth,  for  his 
experiments  are  said  to  have  cost  him  at  least  $100,000.  Count 
Zeppelin  has  been  working  for  a  long  time  on  an  air  ship.  His 
device  is  a  lattice  framework  made  of  aluminum,  416  feet  long,  and 
38  feet  in  diameter.  It  is  divided  into  seventeen  compartments,  in 
each  of  which  is  a  balloon  equipped  with  a  safety  valve  to  prevent 


TRANSPORTATION. 


195 


its  bursting,  should  the  gas  within  it  expand  much  under  the  heat  of 
the  sun.  When  inflated  the  whole  has  a  total  capacity  of  nearly 
400,000  cubic  feet  and  can  lift  about  ten  tons.  Underneath  the  bal- 
loon, near  each  end,  are  two  aluminum  cars,  each  about  twenty  feet 
long  and  three  feet  four  inches  high.  The  cars  have  double  floors 
and  the  space  between  them  is  filled  with  water  ballast,  which  can  be 
released  almost  instantly.  The  air  ship  with  its  crew  and  machinery, 
all  told,  weighs  about  eleven  tons.  To  regulate  its  buoyancy  four 
of  the  largest  balloons  are  fitted  with  outletting  valves  which  can  be 


COUNT  ZEPPELIN'S  FLYING  MACHINE. 

operated  from  one  of  the  cars.  Within  the  aluminum  lattice  work 
is  woven  a  great  quantity  of  aluminum  wire,  which  not  only  strength- 
ens the  frame  but  furnishes  the  network  usually  found  about  a  bal- 
loon. The  outer  cover  is  water  tight,  but  not  necessarily  gas  tight, 
and  seems  to  have  been  chiefly  designed  to  present  a  smooth  surface 
to  the  air  and  reduce  skin  friction.  There  are  a  pair  of  rudders  at 
each  end.  Light,  strong  engines,  burning  naphtha  as  fuel,  furnish 
sixteen  horse-power  to  drive  screw  propellers  which  supply  the  mo- 
tive power.  The  engines  give  one  horse-power  for  forty-four  pounds 
of  weight  and  are  considerably  heavier  than  those  used  by  H.  S. 
Maxim  in  his  experiments.  Under  favorable  circumstances  the  air 


196 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


ship  seems  to  move  at  the  rate  of  twenty-three  miles  an  hour.  A 
weight  sliding  on  a  cable  underneath  the  air  ship  changes  its  center 
of  gravity  and  regulates  its  poise.  When  the  weight  is  drawn  toward 
the  rear  the  front  rises,  and  vice  versa.  Count  Zeppelin  has  shown 
that  he  has  fair  control  over  his  air  ship  and  that  it  possesses  moder- 
ate speed.  It  is  kept  in  a  floating  house  on  Lake  Constance  and  in 
alighting  rests  upon  the  water,  the  buoyancy  being  regulated  by 
the  escape  valves  until  it  rests  easily  on  the  cars  without  sinking 
them  more  than  a  few  inches.  Inasmuch  as  it  is  said  to  cost  $2380 
to  inflate  it  once,  it  is  not  likely  for  some  time  to  be  a  formidable 
competitor  of  present  methods  of  transportation. 

Flying  machines  proper  differ  from  balloons  in  that  they  de- 
pend for  support  upon  their  own  efforts  without  employing  buoyant 
gases  for  that  purpose.  Light  as  air  seems,  it  is  yet  capable  of  sus- 


MAXIM'S.  FLYING  MACHINE. 

taining,  for  the  shortest  fraction  of  time,  some  weight,  just  as  a 
stone  may  be  sent  "  skipping"  across  the  water  or  a  fast  skater  may 
pass  safely  over  thin  ice  that  would  break  under  a  lighter  load  moving 
slowly.  Studies  made  of  birds  that  "sail"  show  that  by  changing 
the  slope  of  their  wings  they  are  able  not  only  to  sustain  themselves 


TRANSPORTATION.  197 

in  a  strong  breeze  but  actually  to  make  headway  against  it  without, 
apparently,  much  muscular  exertion.  Of  the  experimenters  with 
flying  machines  Mr.  H.  S.  Maxim  and  Professor  Langley  have  been 
most  successful.  They  each  made  exhaustive  tests  of  the  lifting 
power  of  aeroplanes.  Of  this  a  kite  is  a  familiar  example.  Boys 
know  that  a  kite  properly  balanced  and  held  by  a  string  in  such  a 
way  that  the  wind  strikes  its  under  surface,  pulls  and  rises  high  into 
the  sky  against  the  force  of  the  wind.  Mr.  Maxim  constructed  ma- 
chinery that  would  turn  a  vertical  shaft.  To  the  shaft  he  attached 
at  right  angles  two  boards  for  arms,  the  whole  slightly  resembling  the 
fans  used  during  hot  weather  for  ventilating  purposes.  Setting  the 
boards  with  the  front  edge  slightly  higher  than  the  rear,  he  rotated 
them  rapidly,  measured  the  power  applied  to  turn  them  and  the  lift- 
ing power  that  the  boards  (aeroplanes)  exerted.  Maxim  found  that 
if  the  plane  were  driven  at  a  slant  of  one  in  fourteen,  it  would  lift 
fourteen  pounds  for  every  pound  of  energy  used  to  drive  it,  and 
when  the  slant  was  made  one  in  twenty,  the  carrying  power  increased 
to  twenty  pounds  for  each  pound  of  energy.  Different  shapes  were 
tried,  and  it  was  shown  that  if  the  aeroplane  were  made  convex 
above,  concave  below,  and  the  front  edge  sharpened,  the  lifting 
power  was  increased  almost  two  and  one  half  times  over  that  of  a 
flat  and  blunt  board.  He  next  proceeded  to  experiment  with  screw 
propellers  and  determined  the  slope  of  propeller  blades  that  would 
give  the  best  results.  He  demonstrated  to  his  own  satisfaction  that 
a  propeller  could  be  made  to  drive  an  aeroplane  fast  enough  so  that 
the  lifting  power  of  the  latter  would  carry  the  machinery  required  to 
propel  it.  He  concluded  that  at  the  most  the  power  required  would 
not  exceed  one  horse-power  for  twenty-five  pounds  weight,  and  set 
about  to  find  a  motor  light  enough  for  his  purpose.  After  trials 
with  oil  engines  and  engines  using  naphtha  in  place  of  steam,  he  came 
back  to  the  steam  engine  and  constructed  one  especially  for  his  pur- 


198  THE    MARVELS   OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

pose.  He  produced  a  marvel  of  lightness  and  power.  For  his  boiler 
he  used  800  copper  tubes  one  half  inch  in  diameter,  an  aggregate 
length  of  5700  feet,  and  with  walls  only  one  fiftieth  inch  thick.  They 
were  designed  to  withstand  a  pressure  of  410  pounds  per  square  inch 
and  tested  far  in  excess  of  that.  To  prevent  the  water  tubes  from 
injury  from  intense  heat  he  kept  up  a  forced  circulation  of  the  water 
within  them.  The  heat  was  furnished  by  7600  naphtha  gas  burners, 
whose  flames  could  be  instantly  controlled.  About  one  pound  of 
gasoline  per  hour  gave  a  horse-power.  The  machine  was  fitted  with 
two  compound  cylinder  steam  engines,  as  remarkable  as  the  boilers. 
The  engines  and  boilers  weighed  about  1960  pounds  and  easily  de- 
veloped 300  horse-power,  an  achievement  in  reducing  weight  never 
before  equaled  and  hardly  considered  even  possible.  The  basis  of 
his  machines  was  a  wooden  platform,  light  but  strong,  forty  feet  long 
and  eight  feet  wide.  Above  and  fastened  to  it  was  a  framework  of 
steel  tubes.  Thirty  feet  above  the  platform  was  the  main  aeroplane, 
rather  more  than  fifty  feet  square  and  having  an  area  of  2874  square 
feet.  Numerous  others  were  used  as  wings  and  rudders,  and  the 
total  area  amounted  to  about  6000  square  feet.  All  planes  were  set 
at  the  angle  that  gave  the  greatest  lifting  power  with  the  least  resist- 
ance to  motion.  The  inclination  of  the  side  wings  and  rudders 
could  be  instantly  changed.  The  rudders  directed  the  vertical  flight. 
Above  the  platform  were  two  screw  propellers,  seven  feet  eleven 
inches  in  diameter,  made  of  yellow  pine  covered  with  canvas  painted 
and  sandpapered  smooth.  The  thrust  of  the  screws  was  at  the 
same  height  as  the  center  of  gravity. 

The  aeroplanes  were  made  of  cotton  cloth  of  an  especially  fine 
texture.  Two  thicknesses  were  employed  ;  the  upper  one  gas  tight, 
the  lower  slightly  porous.  The  air  passing  through  the  lower  one 
filled  the  space  between  them  and  held  the  lower  sheet  flat,  the  ob- 
ject desired,  making  it  almost  as  efficient  as  though  of  wood  or 


TRANSPORTATION.  199 

metal,  and  much  lighter.  The  machine  complete  weighed  about 
8000  pounds. 

First  Trial  of  Maxim's  Machine.  The  machine  was  constructed 
in  a  building  adjoining  a  large  field.  From  the  building  a  track 
about  one  third  of  a  mile  long  was  constructed  and  laid  with  rails. 
Two  axles  on  the  bottom  of  the  machine  platform  were  fitted  with 
wheels  to  run  on  these  rails.  Tests  showed  that  the  thrust  of  the 
screws  against  the  atmosphere  gave  force  enough  to  easily  propel 
the  machine  along  the  track.  Not  being  ready  to  undertake  the 
task  of  steering  the  craft  where  so  many  trees  and  other  obstructions 
were  in  evidence,  an  upper  set  of  rails  made  of  timbers  three  inches 
by  nine  inches  in  section  was  laid  so  that  they  would  strike  the 
upper  rails  and  run  along  underneath  those.  When  all  was  ready 
the  machine  was  given  two  preliminary  runs  along  the  track  at  mod- 
erate speed,  carrying  Mr.  Maxim  and  two  assistants.  It  behaved 
well  and  showed  a  lifting  power  of  2500  pounds.  On  the  third  trial, 
after  running  450  feet  at  a  steam  pressure  of  275  pounds,  it  left  the 
lower  rails  and  began  to  touch  the  upper  ones.  At  600  feet  it  was 
bearing  entirely  against  the  upper  rails.  At  1000  feet,  running  at 
about  50  miles  an  hour,  at  a  pressure  of  310  pounds,  its  lifting  power 
was  so  great  that  it  bent  the  rear  axle,  threw  the  wheels  out  of  joint, 
tore  up  a  hundred  feet  of  track,  and  wrecked  the  machine.  The 
dynograph  showed  that  the  machine  developed  at  each  100  feet  in 
the  run  the  following  lifting  power:  700,  1700,  3000,  3700,  3950, 
5750,  6600,  6450,  6500,  and  8700  pounds.  Though  the  machine  was 
a  wreck,  man  had  achieved  actual  flight,  and  July  31,  1894,  will 
ever  be  a  red  letter  day  in  the  history  of  aerial  navigation. 

Various  Attempts  to  Fly.  Several  inventors  have  constructed 
models  employing  aeroplanes  and  motors,  and  have  proved  that  such 
can  fly.  Lawrence  Hargreaves  of  England  has  constructed  several 
that  have  flown  hundreds  of  yards.  Professor  S.  P.  Langley  of  the 


200          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

Smithsonian  Institution  has  been  markedly  successful.  His  first 
attempt,  shortly  after  that  of  Maxim,  employed  aeroplanes  driven 
by  screw  propellers  turned  by  a  small,  light  steam  engine  rivaling 
that  of  Maxim.  Otto  Lilienthal  of  Berlin,  soaring,  covered  distances 
as  great  as  1000  and  1500  yards,  but  his  device  was  a  set  of  wings 
and  a  rudder  attached  to  his  person.  Starting  with  a  run  he  would 
spring  into  the  air  and  depend  upon  the  atmosphere  acting  upon  his 
aeroplanes.  During  his  experiments  he  met  with  an  accident  which 
resulted  in  his  death.  The  nineteenth  century  has  proved  the  flying 
machine  possible  and  has  left  its  successful  development  as  a  legacy 
to  the  twentieth  century. 

Importance  of  Air  Ships.  It  needs  no  argument  to  prove  the 
value  of  an  air  ship  that  can  be  used  in  ordinary  weather,  and  its 
course  directed  with  certainty.  Such  a  machine  would  be  invaluable 
for  purposes  of  exploration  in  "  Darkest  Africa"  or  the  "Frozen 
North."  A  military  power  enjoying  its  monopoly  would  possess  an 
overwhelming  advantage  over  another  power  numerically  stronger. 
If  it  were  capable  of  carrying  explosives  to  let  fall  from  a  height,  it 
could  destroy  the  most  powerful  navy  afloat.  Battleships  now  carry 
all  the  armor  they  can  bear  without  sacrificing  other  requisites. 
Their  decks  are  comparatively  unprotected  and  would  be  very  suscep- 
tible to  attack  from  above.  It  would  render  war  so  destructive  that 
it  would  do  more  than  any  other  cause  to  promote  universal  peace. 
It  could  establish  communication  with  blockaded  ports  or  besieged 
towns,  and  carry  messages  to  regions  inaccessible  to  telegraph  or 
railroad.  The  British  government  would  have  been  only  too  happy 
to  have  possessed  one  during  the  heroic  defense  of  Ladysmith,  and 
the  whole  civilized  world  would  have  paid  almost  any  price  for  an 
air  ship  that  could  have  brought  authentic  news  from  the  imprisoned 
ministers  at  Peking. 


TRANSPORTATION.  2OI 

WATER  TRANSPORTATION. 

Some  years  ago  it  was  discovered  that  by  a  trick  of  photography 
the  features  of  a  number  of  persons  might  be  blended  and  a  com- 
posite picture  produced.  In  the  steamboat  of  to-day  we  have  some- 
thing'akin  to  it,  though  it  is  not  a  blending  of  features  but  rather  of 
the  inventive  genius  of  a  thousand  minds.  In  fact,  few  mechanical 
contrivances  would  better  illustrate  the  theory  of  evolution. 

Evolution  of  the  Steamboat.  The  average  person  when  asked 
who  invented  the  steamboat  will  at  once  reply,  "  Fulton."  But,  with 
no  disrespect  to  that  able  engineer,  it  may  be  truthfully  said  that  he 
was  only  a  man  who,  backed  by  the  wealth  and  influence  of  the 
Livingstons,  was  able  to  put  in  practical  shape  ideas  that  had  been 
advanced  even  centuries  before. 

Mankind's  Progress.  It  does  not  detract  from  Fulton's  glory 
to  take  this  view  of  his  work,  and  it  certainly  furnishes  a  broader, 
nobler,  grander  conception  of  the  destiny  of  the  human  race  to  re- 
gard such  marked  improvements  as  the  sum  of  the  efforts  of  the 
many  rather  than  the  product  of  an  individual  genius.  If  the  former 
view  is  correct,  such  improvements  show  a  general  advance  of  the 
whole  industrial  army  in  its  warfare  with  Nature's  rude  forces. 

Just  the  index  alone  to  the  specifications  of  patents  relating  to 
propelling  ships  by  means  other  than  sails,  that  were  filed  in  the 
English  Patent  Office  from  1618  to  1866,  fills  nearly  eight  hundred 
closely  printed  pages.  Does  not  this  show  something  of  the  wealth 
of  thought  that  has  been  lavished  on  the  subject? 

It  has  been  said  that  Blasco  De  Garray  made  in  1543  a  steamboat 
and  exhibited  it  before  the  commissioners  of  Emperor  Charles  V.  of 
Spain.  This  is  not  easily  verified  and  is  not  generally  credited,  but 
from  that  time  the  idea  continued  to  receive  increased  attention.  In 
1663  the  Marquis  of  Worcester  describes  an  engine  with  which  he 
said  he  could  propel  a  boat  against  an  adverse  current. 


202          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

The  First  Steamboat.  Denis  Papin,  a  French  engineer,  forced 
by  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  to  leave  his  country,  fled 
to  Hesse,  Germany,  and  was  made  professor  of  mathematics  at  the 
University  of  Marburg.  He  published  in  1690  a  good  description  of 
a  fire  engine  and  suggested  the  application  of  steam  power  to  boats. 
Some  of  his  correspondence,  recently  brought  to  light,  proves  that  in 
1707  he  constructed  and  operated  on  the  river  Fulda  a  boat  pro- 
pelled by  paddles  moved  by  steam  power.  This  was  one  hundred 
years  before  Fulton's  Katharine  of  Clermont.  Papin's  experiment 
was  a  success  but  it  subjected  him  to  a  storm  of  scorn,  ridicule,  and 
abuse.  It  was  made  so  unpleasant  for  him  that  he  attempted  to  go 
to  London  in  his  boat.  He  descended  the  Fulda  and  entered  the 
Weser  river,  where  the  boatmen,  jealous  of  their  calling  and  fearing 
that  this  strange  engine  would  take  from  them  their  means  of  liveli- 
hood, assaulted  him  and  destroyed  his  boat.  He  escaped  and  went 
to  London,  where  he  died  three  years  later.  However,  the  idea  was 
in  the  atmosphere  and  numerous  experiments  were  being  made  by 
the  inventors  of  the  whole  civilized  world.  In  1775  Monsieur  Per- 
rier  constructed  a  boat  driven  by  an  engine  of  about  one  horse- 
power. It  was  tried  on  the  river  Seine,  but  his  engines  were  not 
powerful  enough  to  enable  the  boat  to  ascend  the  river,  and  it  is  in- 
teresting to  note  that  the  inventor  ascribed  his  failure  to  the  use  of 
paddle  wheels  instead  of  oars. 

First  American  Steamboat.  .  Mr.  James  Rumsey  of  Berkeley 
county,  Virginia,  next  claims  our  attention  and  presents  his  cre- 
dentials. 

"I  have  seen  the  model  of  Mr.  Rumsey' s  boat,  constructed  to  work 
against  the  stream  ;  examined  the  powers  upon  which  it  acts';  been  eye- 
witness to  an  actual  experiment  in  running  waters  of  some  rapidity  ;  and 
give  it  as  my  opinion  (although  I  had  little  faith  before)  that  he  has  discov- 
ered the  art  of  working  boats  by  mechanism  and  small  manual  assistance 
against  rapid  currents  ;  that  the  discovery  is  of  vast  importance,  may  be  of 


TRANSPORTATION.  203 

the  greatest  usefulness  in  our  inland  navigation  ;  and  if  it  succeeds,  of  which 
I  have  no  doubt,  the  value  of  it  is  greatly  enhanced  by  the  simplicity  of  the 
work,  which,  when  explained,  may  be  executed  by  the  most  common 
mechanic. 

"  Given  under  my  hand  and  seal,  in  the  town  of  Bath,  county  of  Berke- 
ley, in  the  state  of  Virginia,  this  yth  day  of  September,  1784. 

-GEORGE  WASHINGTON." 

The  poverty  of  the  country  was  such  at  the  end  of  the  war  that 
Rumsey  was  unable  to  find  financial  backers,  so  he  destroyed  his 
model  and  went  to  England,  hoping  in  that  older  and  richer  country 
to  find  the  aid  of  capital  he  needed.  He  took  out  patents  in 
England,  France,  and  Germany,  organized  a  company,  and  exhib- 
ited a  boat  on  the  Thames  in  1/92.  He  made  little  progress  and 
after  a  hard  struggle  died  Dec.  23,  1/93.  He  had  become  engaged 
in  a  controversy  with  Fitch,  whom  he  accused  of  "  coming  pottering 
around  "  his  Virginia  shop.  In  London  letters  written  to  a  friend 
he  speaks  of  the  visits  of  a  Mr.  Fulton,  a  young  American  engineer 
who  betrayed  a  very  sympathetic  and  intelligent  interest  in  his 
plans. 

Origin  of  the  Screw  Propeller.  Thomas  Jefferson,  writing  from 
Paris  in  1785,  describes  a  boat  of  whose  propeller  he  says:  "  It  is  a 
screw  with  a  very  broad  or  thin  worm,  or  rather  it  is  a  thin  plate 
with  its  edge  applied  spirally  around  an  axis.  This  being  turned, 
operates  on  the  air  as  a  screw  does.  The  screw,  I  think,  would  be 
more  effectual  if  placed  below  the  surface  of  the  water."  In  tracing 
the  evolution  of  the  screw  propeller  it  is  well  to  remember  that 
David  Bushnell  used  it  on  a  submarine  torpedo  boat  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  although  Bushnell's  was  turned  by  hand.  The  screw  is 
said  to  be  as  old  as  the  windmill  and  is  described  by  Hero  of  Alex- 
andria. Joseph  Bramah  took  out  a  patent  in  England  in  1785  for  a 
screw  propeller  to  be  placed  at  the  stern  of  a  vessel  and  the  shaft  to 


2O4          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

be  connected  directly  to  the  spindle  of  a  rotary  steam  engine. 
There  is  no  evidence  that  he  ever  put  this  idea  into  practice. 

John  Fitch,  in  1786,  exhibited  on  the  Delaware  a  steamboat  pro- 
pelled by  means  of  paddles.  The  experiment  was  considered  a  suc- 
cess. Other  boats  were  built  by  Fitch  and  his  friends,  and  one 
tried  April,  I79°>  on  the  Delaware  river  opposite  Philadelphia,  over 
a  measured  course,  went  at  the  rate  of  eight  miles  an  hour.  The 
same  boat  afterwards  steamed  eighty  miles  in  a  day  and  ran  regularly 
for  three  or  four  months  to  Trenton,  Burlington,  Chester,  Wilming- 
ton, and  Gray's  Ferry,  carrying  passengers  and  freight.  "One  of 
these  advertisements,  taken  from  The  Federal  Gazette  and  Philadel- 
phia Daily  Advertiser  of  Monday,  July  26,  1790,  is  as  follows.  It 
will-  be  seen  it  was  thought  sufficiently  distinctive  to  call  her  the 
steamboat,  since  there  was  none  other  in  the  world  at  that  time :  — 

'"THE  STEAMBOAT 

Sets  out  to-morrow  morning  at  ten  o'clock,  from  Arch  Street  Ferry,  in 
order  to  take  passengers  for  Burlington,  Bristol,  Bordentown,  and  Trenton, 
and  return  next  day. 

'  Philadelphia,  July  26th,  1790.'  "  * 

The  boat  steamed  in  the  course  of  the  season  2000  or  3000  miles, 
but  was  laid  up  because  there  was  not  enough  business  to  justify  the 
expense  of  running  it. 

In  1791,  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Vail,  United  States  consul  at 
L'Orient,  France,  Fitch  went  over  there  for  the  purpose  of  building 
steamboats,  but  the  necessary  workmen  and  materials  could  not  be 
obtained.  Mr.  Vail  afterwards  stated  that  he  showed  the  plans  and 
description  of  Fitch's  steamboat  to  Robert  Fulton,  who  visited  him 
in  France. 


*  Treble's  "  History  of  Steam  Navigation." 


TRANSPORTATION.  2O5 

Efforts  of  the  Early  Inventors.  In  the  light  of  the  present  it 
would  appear  that  the  steam  engine  had  not  reached  that  degree  of 
perfection  that  rendered  the  steamboat  practicable.  Fitch  died  poor 
and  disappointed.  In  his  autobiography  he  said,  "The  day  will 
come  when  some  more  powerful  man  will  get  fame  and  riches  'from 
MY  invention;  but  nobody  will  believe  that  poor  John  Fitch  can  do 
anything  worthy  of  attention." 

In  1789  Mr.  Patrick  Millar  exhibited  a  steamboat  on  the  Clyde 
canal.  It  appears  to  have  been  driven  by  paddle  wheels  and  to  have 
made  seven  knots  an  hour.  It  was  a  pleasure  boat  used  simply  for 
experimental  purposes,  and  soon  the  engines  were  taken  out  and  the 
boat  returned  to  its  original  work. 

The  first  United  States  patent  applied  for  was  that  of  Nathan 
Read  of  Salem,  Massachusetts,  who,  in  1790,  asked  fora  patent  on 
a  steamboat  to  be  propelled  by  paddle  wheels.  Later,  on  reading 
"The  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society,"  he  found  mention  of  an 
experiment  made  many  years  before  in  France  with  paddle  wheels 
and  supposed  that  would  debar  him  from  securing  a  patent,  so  with- 
drew his  petition.  Fulton  obtained  his  patent  for  paddle  wheels 
twenty  years  after  Read  withdrew  his  application.  August  26,  1791, 
the  first  United  States  patents  were  issued  to  Read  for  a  multi- 
tubular  boiler,  and  to  Fitch,  Rumsey,  and  Stevens  for  different  ap- 
plications of  steam  to  boats. 

The  Earl  of  Stanhope  in  1795  exhibited  a  steamboat  propelled 
by  two  gigantic  paddles  shaped  like  duck's  feet,  made  to  close  as 
they  were  moved  forward  and  spread  out  as  they  were  pushed  back- 
ward. He  attained  with  his  boat  a  speed  of  about  three  miles  an 
hour.  After  Fulton's  death  it  was  discovered  that  he  had  corre- 
sponded with  the  Earl  of  Stanhope.  Had  he  found  in  the  earl  the 
wealthy  backer  that  in  after  years  he  found  in  the  Livingstons,  the 
first  commercially  successful  steamboat  line  might  have  been  estab- 
lished in  England  instead  of  on  the  Hudson. 


206 


THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 


"  Elijah  Ormsbee,  a  carpehter  by  trade,  an  inventor  by  birth, 
and  a  native  of  Connecticut,  is  said  to  have  moved  a  boat  successfully 
by  steam."  Ormsbee's  experiments  were  in  the  vicinity  of  Provi- 
dence, Rhode  Island.  He  borrowed  a  "long  boat"  from  the  ship 
Abigail,  a  copper  still  from  a  friend,  and  constructed  a  boat  that 
moved  by  means  of  goose-foot  paddles.  The  experiment  was  wit- 
nessed by  many  people  of  Provi- 
dence and  Pawtucket  about  1/94. 
It  has  been  claimed  that  Mr.  Daniel 
French,  who  afterward  saw  the  ma- 
chinery, had  it  explained  to  him,  and 
later  made  Mr.  Fulton  familiar  with 
it. 

About  the  same  year  Captain 
Samuel  Morey  of  Connecticut  is 
said  to  have  propelled  a  boat  from 
Hartford  to  New  York  city  at  the 
rate  of  five  miles  an  hour,  carrying 
on  board  John  C.  Stevens,  several 
members  of  the  Livingston  family, 
and  others.  This  boat  was  propelled 

by  a  stern  wheel.  Beyond  question,  he  in  1797  exhibited  on  the 
Delaware  a  steamboat  with  paddle  wheels  on  the  sides  and  ran  it 
from  Bordentown  to  Philadelphia.  Fulton's  Clermont  closely  re- 
sembled Morey's  boat.  Captain  Morey  was  an  educated  man  and 
expended  what  was  then  a  large  fortune  in  scientific  experiments. 
He  corresponded  and  exchanged  visits  with  Fulton  and  had  taken 
out  several  patents  for  steamboats  before  Fulton's  Clermont  appeared 
on  the  Hudson.  Captain  Morey  always  maintained  that  Fulton 
copied  his  plans  and  abused  his  confidence. 

Rumsey's  first  boat  was    propelled  by    directing  a  jet  of  steam 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


TRANSPORTATION.  2O/ 

through  the  stern  against  the  water.  In  Fitch's  first  boat  water  was 
drawn  in  at  the  bow  and  discharged  at  the  stern,  but  later  he  moved 
it  by  paddles  fixed  at  the  stern.  In  1796  Fitch  tried  the  screw  pro- 
peller, and  if  not  the  first  to  actually  move  it  by  steam  was  at  least 
one  of  the  first.  "The  experiment  was  tried  under  the  patronage  of 
Robert  H.  Livingston,  as  certified  to  by  John  R.  Hutchings,  General 
Anthony  Lamb,  and  William  H.  Westlock.  It  was  made  with  a 
screw  propeller,  the  vessel  used  was  a  yawl,  about  eighteen  feet  in 
length  and  having  six  feet  beam,  and  steered  at  the  bow  with  an  oar. 
The  boiler  was  a  ten-gallon  iron  pot,  with  a  thick  plank  lid  firmly 
fastened  to  it  by  an  iron  bar  placed  transversely.  The  cylinders 
were  of  wood,  barrel  shaped  on  the  outside,  straight  on  the  inside, 
and  strongly  hooped.  Steam  was  raised  sufficiently  high  to  send  the 
boat  once  or  twice  around  the  pond,  when  more  water  was  needed 
to  generate  steam  for  a  new  start.  The  time  was  the  summer  of 
1796,  and  the  scene  of  the  experiment  was  'The  Collect,'  a  fresh- 
water pond  in  New  York  city,  near  what  is  now  called  Canal  street. 
The  pond  has  been  drained,  and  its  site,  covered  with  houses,  is  now 
in  the  heart  of  the  city."  * 

Chancellor  Livingston,  American  minister  to  France,  had  for 
some  years  been  interested  in  the  application  of  steam  to  boats.  He 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Robert  Fulton,  and  in  1803  they  launched 
a  steamboat  on  the  river  Seine.  The  boat  was  so  frail  that  when 
the  engines  were  placed  aboard  they  broke  through  the  bottom  and 
the  boat  sank.  A  larger  boat  made  in  1804  was  so  slow  as  to  be  a 
failure.  Napoleon  appointed  a  committee  from  the  Institute  to 
investigate  Fulton's  scheme  and  report  upon  it.  When  the  adverse 
report  was  handed  in  it  is  said  he  appeared  disappointed  and  ex- 
claimed, "It  is  a  pity."  His  navy  was  vastly  inferior  to  that  of 
Great  Britain  and  he  had  been  anxiously  seeking  for  something  that 

*  Treble's  "  History  of  Steam  Navigation." 


208  THE    MARVELS   OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

would  make  his  landsmen  drafted  into  the  French  navy,  the  equal 
of  the  British  sailors.  After  Fulton's  unsuccessful  experiments  on 
the  Seine,  he  went  to  England  to  inspect  the  boat  Charlotte 
Dundas,  built  by  Miller,  Taylor,  and  Symington,  and  which  was  in 
successful  operation  upon  the  Clyde  canal.  Of  this  visit  Symington 
has  said:  "  In  compliance  with  Mr.  Fulton's  earnest  request,  I  caused 
the  engine  fire  to  be  lighted  up,  and  in  a  short  time  thereafter  put  the 
steamboat  in  motion,  and  carried  him  from  Lock  Sixteen,  where 
the  boat  then  lay,  four  miles  west  in  the  canal,  and  returned  to  the 
place  of  starting,  in  one  hour  and  twenty  minutes,  to  the  great 
astonishment  of  Mr.  Fulton  and  several  gentlemen,  who  at  our  offset 
chanced  to  come  on  board."  The  Charlotte  Dundas  had  a  double- 
acting  Watt  engine  and  a  stern  paddle  wheel.  The  power  was  trans- 
mitted by  a  connecting  rod  attached  to  the  crank  of  the  paddle  shaft. 
She  was  employed  to  tow  boats  on  the  Clyde  canal  and  did  the  work 
successfully,  but  was  abandoned  because  the  canal  authorities  con- 
sidered the  waves  she  set  in  motion  destructive  to  the  canal  banks. 

Aided  by  Chancellor  Livingston,  Fulton  purchased  an  engine  of 
Boulton  and  Watt  in  1806  and  shipped  it  to  America.  The  state  of 
New  York  had  already,  April  3,  1803,  conferred  upon  Livingston 
and  Fulton  the  privilege  of  navigating  for  twenty  years,  by  vessels 
propelled  by  fire  or  steam,  all  the  waters  within  its  boundaries  upon 
condition  that  they  should  propel  a  boat  of  twenty  tons  burden  up 
the  Hudson  at  the  rate  of  four  miles  an  hour.  After  considerable 
delay  the  Clermont,  a  boat  130  feet  long,  18  feet  wide,  drawing 
six  feet  of  water,  was  launched  at  New  York  and  the  Boulton  and 
Watt  engine  that  had  been  lying  at  New  York  between  Canal  street 
and  the  Battery  for  some  months,  held  by  the  carriers  for  non- 
payment of  freight,  was  installed.  It  was  a  low  pressure  engine  with 
a  cylinder  twenty-four  inches  in  diameter  and  a  three-foot  stroke, 
and  it  turned  two  side  paddle  wheels  fifteen  feet  in  diameter  dipping 


TRANSPORTATION. 


209 


THE  "CLERMONT'S"  FIRST  VOYAGE. 


two  feet  in  the  water.  On  August  7,  1807,  the  Clermont  with 
Fulton,  her  crew,  a  few  friends,  and  six  passengers  left  her  berth  in 
the  presence  of  an  incredulous  and  jeering  crowd  and  proceeded  on 
her  memorable  voyage  up  the  Hudson.  She  made  the  trip  of  150 
miles  in  thirty-two  hours,  a  rate  of  nearly  five  miles  an  hour,  and 
complied  with  all  the 
requirements  neces- 
sary to  hold  the  priv- 
ilege to  the  naviga- 
ble waters  of  New 
York  state  for  Liv- 
ingston and  Fulton. 
The  excitement  the 
appearance  of  the 
boat  produced  can 
be  better 'imagined  than  described.  Mails  were  slow,  there  was  no 
such  thing  as  telegraphic  communication,  and  the  people  along  the 
route  were  not  prepared  for  the  appearance  of  the  strange  monster. 
The  crews  of  many  of  the  passing  boats  were  much  alarmed  even  in 
the  daytime,  and  at  night  as  she  moved  along,  emitting  a  cloud  of 
sparks  from  her  chimneys  and  accompanied  by  the  rumbling  and 
roaring  throb  of  her  engine,  she  struck  terror  to  the  hearts  of  the 
superstitious.  "  Whole  crews  prostrated  themselves  upon  their  knees 
and  besought  Divine  Providence  to  protect  them  from  the  horrible 
monster  that  was  marching  on  the  tides  and  lighting  up  its  pathway 
by  its  fires."  Writers  of  that  time  do  not  agree  as  to  the  name  of 
the  boat.  Some  state  that  it  was  called  the  Clermont,  after  Chancellor 
Livingston's  residence ;  others  that  it  was  called  Katharine  of  Cler- 
mont, after  Fulton's  wife,  Katharine  Livingston. 

Development  of  Steam  Shipping.       A   regular  line   was   estab- 
lished between  Albany  and  New  York.      The  fare  by  stagecoach  be- 


210          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

tween  the  two  points  was  $12,  but  Fulton's  boats  were  soon  carrying 
passengers  for  $7  and  the  price  in  a  few  years  was  reduced  to  $3. 
Fulton's  name  has  become  so  closely  linked  with  the  steamboat 
because  his  line  was  a  financial  success,  made  so  by  the  wealth,  influ- 
ence, and  enterprise  of  the  Livingstons  aided  by  the  valuable  fran- 
chise conferred  upon  them  by  the  state  of  New  York.  Numerous 
inventors  had  made  steamboats  before  the  Clermont  was  launched 
and  some  of  them  were  speedier,  notably  those  of  Fitch,  Colonel 
John  Stevens,  and  Symington. 

Fulton's  first  United  States  patents,  issued  in  1809  and  181 1,  cov- 
ered only  a  few  points  relating  to  the  attachment  of  paddle  wheels 
to  axles  and  cranks  to  engines.  August  26,  1/91,  a  United  States 
patent  signed  by  George  Washington,  president,  and  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son, secretary  of  state,  was  issued  to  John  Fitch  "  for  applying  the 
force  of  steam  to  cranks,  paddles  for  propelling  a  boat  or  vessel 
through  the  water."  Fitch's  patent  was  granted  for  fourteen  years 
and  it  expired  before  the  Clermont  was  launched.  Fulton  was 
an  able  engineer  and  had  devised  improvements  in  machinery  for 
sawing  marble,  making  rope,  spinning  flax,  and  making  excavations, 
and  he  had  given  considerable  study  to  the  improvement  of  canals. 
He  was  also  a  portrait  painter  of  considerable  ability. 

Colonel  John  C.  Stevens  of  Hoboken,  N.  J.,  who  devoted  con- 
siderable time  and  money  to  experiments  with  steamboats  and  steam 
engines  and  was  later  to  become  identified  with  railroads,  in  1789 
petitioned  the  New  York  legislature  for  a  grant  of  the  exclusive 
right  of  steam  navigation  of  the  waters  of  that  state  but  it  was  re- 
fused him  and  later  given  to  the  Livingstons.  The  Stevens  family 
had  constructed  several  steamboats  prior  to  1807,  some  of  them  bet- 
ter than  any  at  that  time  existing.  One  of  their  later  ones,  the 
Phoenix,  a  paddle  wheel  steamer,  was  ready  only  a  few  days  later 
than  the  Clermont,  but  the  franchise  granted  Fulton  and  Living- 


TRANSPORTATION.  211 

ston  precluded  Stevens  from  operating  it  on  New  York  waters. 
Later,  with  characteristic  courage,  he  placed  it  in  command  of  his 
son,  Robert  L.  Stevens,  who  started  along  the  coast  of  New  Jersey 
around  Cape  May  and  up  the  Delaware  to  Philadelphia.  This  was 
the  first  appearance  of  a  steam  vessel  on  the  ocean.  Stormy  weather 
was  encountered  but  the  Phcenix  was  able  to  make  a  harbor 
when  sailing  vessels  were  blown  out  to  sea,  and  arrived  safely  at 
Philadelphia.  It  was  employed  for  a  long  time  to  transport  passen- 
gers and  freight  on  the  Delaware  river.  Improvements  in  steam 
engines  increased  the  efficiency  of  the  steamboat  and  soon  they  were 
found  on  the  principal  inland  waters  of  America.  The  first  to  ap- 
pear on  the  St.  Lawrence  was  the  Accommodation  launched  in 
1809,  which  carried  passengers  from  Montreal  to  Quebec  for  $8  and 
from  Quebec  to  Montreal,  against  the  stream,  for  $9.  In  181 1  a  line 
was  established  between  Pittsburg  and  New  Orleans. 

In  Great  Britain.  In  1812  Henry  Bell  of  Glasgow  launched  the 
Comet  and  established  the  first  commercially  successful  line  in  Great 
Britain.  Following  is  a  copy  of  the  original  advertisement:  — 

"STEAM  PASSAGE  BOAT.  The  Comet.  Between  Glasgow, 
Greenock,  and  Helens  burgh,  for  passengers  only.  The  subscriber  having, 
at  much  expense,  fitted  up  a  handsome  vessel  to  ply  upon  the  RIVER 
CLYDE  BETWEEN  GLASGOW  AND  GREENOCK,  to  sail  by  the 
power  of  wind,  air,  and  steam,  he  intends  that  the  vessel  shall  leave  the 
Broomielaw  on  Tuesdays,  Thursdays,  and  Saturdays,  about  midday,  or  at 
such  hour  thereafter  as  may  answer  from  the  state  of  the  tide ;  and  to  leave 
Greenock  on  Mondays,  Wednesdays,  and  Fridays,  in  the  morning,  to  suit 
the  tide. 

"  The  terms  are  for  the  present  fixed  at  45.  for  the  best  cabin,  and  35. 
for  the  second ;  but,  beyond  these  rates,  nothing  is  to  be  allowed  to  serv- 
ants or  any  other  person  employed  about  the  vessel. 

"The  subscriber  continues  his  establishment  at  HELENSBURGH 
BATHS  the  same  as  for  years  past,  and  a  vessel  will  be  in  readiness  to  con- 
vey passengers  in  the  Comet  from  Greenock  to  Helensburgh. 


212          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

"  Passengers  by  the  Comet  will  receive  information  of  the  hours  of  sail- 
ing by  applying  at  Mr.  Housten's  office,  Broomielavv  ;  or  Mr.  Thomas 
Blackney'-s,  East  Quay  Head,  Greenock. 

"HENRY  BELL. 
"  Helensburgh  Baths,  Aug.  5,  1812." 

Russia  introduced  steam  navigation  in  1815-1816,  but  earlier 
than  that  she  placed  an  order  for  a  steamship  with  a  company  in  the 
United  States  which  constructed  the  Emperor  Alexander  for  her. 
Great  Britain's  command  of  the  sea  during  the  War  of  1812  pre- 
vented the  departure  of  what  would  have  been  the  first  steam  vessel 
to  cross  the  Atlantic,  and  it  was  used  as  a  coasting  steamer  between 
Portland  and  Boston.  As  early  as  1826,  Russia  had  a  steam 
warship. 

The  first  steam  vessel  to  cross  the  Atlantic  was  the  Savan- 
nah. Built  at  New  York,  launched  August  22,  1818,  of  380  tons 
burden,  she  was  originally  intended  as  a  sailing  packet  between  New 
York  and  Liverpool.  She  was  fitted  with  sails  and  paddle  wheels, 
and  made  the  passage  from  New  York  to  Savannah  in  1819  in  seven 
days,  where  she  took  President  Monroe  and  his  party  on  board  for  a 
trial  trip.  On  May  26,  1819,  she  sailed  from  Savannah  for  Liver- 
pool. The  log  books  of  several  ships  contain  notices  of  having 
spoken  her.  One  supposed  she  was  on  fire  and  tried  to  afford  relief 
but  could  not  catch  her.  Off  the  coast  of  Ireland  the  revenue  cutter 
Kite  chased  her  for  several  hours,  supposing  her  to  be  either  on 
fire,  or  a  most  suspicious  craft.  Several  shots  were  fired  at  her 
before  she  stopped  her  engines,  and  the  revenue  officers  were  greatly 
surprised  at  the  strange  craft  when  they  came  on  board.  She  arrived 
in  Liverpool  after  a  voyage  of  twenty-five  days,  having  used  her 
engines  but  eighteen  days  for  fear  of  giving  out.  The  Savannah  was 
the  subject  of  many  strange  rumors,—  one  that  she  was  a  craft 
especially  designed  to  effect  the  escape  of  Napoleon  from  St.  Helena. 
From  Liverpool  she  proceeded  to  Copenhagen,  Stockholm,  and  St. 


TRANSPORTATION.  2  1 3 

Petersburg,  being  visited  at  each  port  by  a  curious  crowd ;  while  at 
Kronstadt  the  Emperor  of  Russia  paid  her  a  visit.  She  returned  to 
Savannah,  having  made  the  voyage  in  excellent  condition.  Later 
she  was  wrecked  off  the  coast  of  Long  Island. 

The  importance  of  steam  navigation  soon  came  to  be  generally 
recognized,  and  lines  of  steamboats  were  plying  upon  the  inland 
waters  of  America,  between  Ireland  and  Great  Britain,  and  between 
Dover  and  Calais.  In  1825  the  British  ship  Enterprise  steamed 
from  London  to  Calcutta,  and  was  the  first  to  steam  around  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope.  However,  steamship  lines  between  British  and 
Indian  ports  were  restricted  chiefly  to  carrying  passengers,  for  the 
great  amount  of  coal  required  for  the  long  voyage  occupied  so  much 
room  that  there  was  little  left  for  profitable  freight. 

Iron  Ships.  In  1820  the  Aaron  Manby  was  launched  at  a  British 
shipyard.  She  was  the  first  iron  steamer  and  the  first  steamer  to 
sail  directly  from  London  to  Paris.  By  1832  iron  ships  were  com- 
mon. They  were  stronger,  lighter,  and  were  the  first  vessels  con- 
structed with  water-tight  bulkheads.  In  1831  there  was  built  at 
Quebec  the  Royal  William  and  the  following  year  this  steamer, 
the  third  to  cross  the  Atlantic  ocean,  was  taken  to  Montreal,  fitted 
with  engines,  and  made  the  voyage  to  London.  Her  appearance 
was  so  unusual  that  upon  encountering  a  British  warship  she  was 
fired  upon  and  forced  to  lie  to  until  the  naval  officers  could  satisfy 
themselves  there  was  nothing  wrong  with  her.  She  had  no  cargo 
but  coal,  and  used  the  greater  part  of  that  in  making  her  voyage. 
While  on  the  Thames  she  was  sold  to  the  Spanish  Government,  and 
was  the  first  steam  war  vessel  possessed  by  that  nation.  Prior  to 
1838  it  was  generally  supposed  that  a  steamer  in  crossing  the  Atlan- 
tic would  require  so  much  coal-  that  there  would  be  little  room  left 
for  passengers  or  paying  freight. 

Opening  of  Transatlantic  Lines.     As  early  as   1832   Dr.  Junius 


214  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

Smith,  an  American  residing  in  London,  began  to  agitate  the  ques- 
tion of  a  line  of  transatlantic  steamers.  A  trip  from  London  to 
New  York  which  consumed  fifty-four  days,  and  the  return,  thirty-two 
days,  brought  the  need  forcibly  to  his  notice,  when,  according  to  his 
ideas,  a  steamship  should  have  made  the  time  in  fifteen  or  sixteen 
days.  His  plan  excited  general  ridicule  and  the  strenuous  opposition 
of  those  interested  in  sailing  vessels,  who,  from  self-interest,  would 
naturally  oppose  such  schemes.  So  conservative  were  the  people 
that  the  utmost  difficulty  was  experienced.  The  Duke  of  Wellington 
replied  to  Dr.  Smith  that  he  "would  give  no  countenance  to  any 
scheme  which  had  for  its  object  a  change  in  the  established  system  of 
the  country."  However,  Dr.  Smith  pluckily  kept  at  it,  borrowed 
influential  names  and  by  such  aid  secured  other  names  until  finally 
he  had  a  list  of  responsible  gentlemen  who  would  agree  to  become 
directors  in  his  company.  The  company,  known  as  the  British  and 
American  Steam  Navigation  Company,  was  organized,  the  stock  sub- 
scribed, and  the  construction  of  the  British  Queen,  of  2400  tons, 
what  was  then  an  exceedingly  large  vessel,  was  begun.  The  line 
was  intended  to  run  from  London  and  Liverpool  to  New  York. 

Meantime  a  rival  company  was  in  the  field.  The  Great  Western 
Railway  was  constructed  from  London  to  Bristol  about  1835.  At 
one  of  the  meetings  of  the  directors  the  celebrated  engineer,  Brunei, 
proposed  building  steamships  and  connecting  Bristol  directly  with 
New  York.  The  idea  was  treated  as  a  joke,  but  the  authority  of 
the  engineer  prevailed  and  a  comparatively  large  ship  known  as 
the  Great  Western  was  constructed.  This  line  was  to  run  in  op- 
position to  that  of  Smith's,  and  the  Great  Western  was  to  be  com- 
pleted before  the  British  Queen.  Not  to  be  outdone,  Smith's 
line  chartered  a  schooner  rigged  steamer  called  the  Sirius  and  em- 
ployed her  until  their  own  vessel  could  be  completed  The  Sirius 
left  Cork  on  her  first  voyage  April  4,  1838,  and  arrived  off  New 


TRANSPORTATION.  2 15 

York  harbor  April  22,  making  the  trip  in  eighteen  days.  This 
was  the  first  trip  made  in  the  interests  of  an  established  trans- 
atlantic line.  The  Great  Western  sailed  from  Bristol  four  days 
later  than  the  Sirius  and  arrived  in  New  York  April  23,  actually 
tying  up  at  the  wharf  only  a  few  hours  later  than  the  Sirius,  for 
the  latter  vessel,  in  trying  to  make  the  harbor  without  a  pilot, 
grounded  and  was  delayed  off  Sandy  Hook.  Their  appearance  at 
New  York  created  a  sensation  and  marked  a  new  epoch  in  trans- 
portation. This  was  not  so  long  ago  but  that  many  people  are  still 
living  who  witnessed  the  arrival  of  these  steamers  at  New  York.  If 
they  be  compared  with  the  largest  steamers  at  the  close  of  the  cen- 
tury the  advance  appears  startling.  The  Sirius,  which  made  the 
first  voyage  in  the  interests  of  an  organized  transatlantic  company, 
was  of  about  700  tons  burden.  The  Deutschland,  the  fastest 
steamer  of  the  Hamburg-American  line,  the  greatest  transportation 
company  in  the  world,  has  a  displacement  of  23,000  tons.  The 
Sirius  in  her  voyage  made  7  knots  an  hour;  the  Deutschland, 
231/2  knots  an  hour.  The  engines  of  the  Sirius  developed  about 
320  horse-power;  those  of  the  Deutschland,  36,913  horse-power. 
The  first  was  moved  by  paddle  wheels  aided  by  masts  and  sails ; 
the  second  by  two  manganese  bronze  screw  propellers,  23  feet 
in  diameter,  each  attached  to  the  end  of  a  hollow  nickel  steel 
shaft,  130  feet  in  length  and  more  than  2  feet  in  diameter.  Steam 
is  furnished  the  Deutschland  by  16  Scotch  boilers,  with  a  working 
pressure  of  225  pounds  per  square  inch,"  heated  by  112  separate 
furnaces,  burning  572  tons  of  coal  a  day.  In  her  record  run  she 
averaged  1.45  pounds  of  coal  per  horse-power-hour.  The  engines 
of  the  Sirius.  worked  with  a  pressure  of  53.4  pounds  per  square 
inch,  and  her  furnace  consumed  one  ton  of  coal  in  one  hour  and 
thirty  minutes.  She  carried  forty-six  passengers.  The  Deutsch- 
land has  sleeping  accommodations  for  1320  persons,  rather  more 


2l6          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

people  than  are  found  in  the  average  country  town.  At  her  best  the 
Sirius  could  do  about  225  knots  a  day:  the  new  ship  has  a  record 
of  584  knots  in  24  hours.  The  Sirius  occupied  17  days  on  her 
return  trip,  ran  out  of  coal  and  burned  anything  that  could  be 
spared.  The  Deutschland,  leaving  New  York  September  5,  1900, 
on  her  eastern  trip,  crossed  in  five  days,  seven  hours,  and  thirty-eight 
minutes,  her  engines  at  times  developing  nearly  38,000  horse-power. 
The  engines  of  the  Deutschland  are  each  of  the  6-cylinder, 
quadruple  expansion  type:  two  high  pressure  cylinders,  each  36.64 
inches  in  diameter;  first  intermediate  cylinder  73.67  inches  in 
diameter;  second  intermediate  cylinder  104.61  inches  in  diameter. 
The  common  stroke  is  72.89  inches.  To  produce  the  steam  re- 
quired to  drive  her  enormous  mass  at  the  rate  of  28  statute  miles 
an  hour  it  is  necessary  to  expose  nearly  two  acres  (84,250  square 
feet)  of  her  heating  surface  to  the  action  of  the  fire  of  112  furnaces. 
Twelve  rings  or  collars  on  each  shaft,  working  against  bearings  or 
thrust  holes,  hold  the  shaft  in  place  and  prevent  the  propellers  from 
pushing  the  engines  out  of  the  ship. 

Contrast  with  the  Present.  It  is  estimated  that  it  costs  $100,000 
to  send  the  Deutschland  on  one  round  trip.  The  coal  alone  for 
one  voyage  costs  about  $15,000.  She  has  a  crew  of  550  men,  of 
whom  240  are  required  to  care  for  her  engines  and  machinery.  The 
enormous  engines  and  the  necessary  supplies  take  up  so  much  room 
that  the  Deutschland  has  room  for  only  about  600  tons  of  freight 
and  carries  practically  none.  Her  furnaces  burn  in  one  day  as  much 
coal  as  the  Sirius  could  carry  if  her  whole  cargo  were  given  up  to 
it.  The  Deut.schland  is  essentially  a  passenger  steamer  and  every- 
thing has  been  done  to  make  her  attractive.  She  has  a  gym- 
nasium, a  hospital,  library,  printing  office,  pianos,  flowers,  an  electric 
lighting  plant  with  about  2000  lights  in  the  circuit,  a  restaurant  forty 
feet  above  the  water  where  the  passengers  can  obtain  meals  at  any 


TRANSPORTATION.  2 17 

time.  In  the  grand  saloon  500  persons  can  be  seated  at  the  table  at 
one  time.  Costly  paintings  and  decorations  add  to  the  general 
attractiveness,  and  an  ocean  voyage  has  been  robbed  of  its  most  dis- 
agreeable features.  Every  provision  for  safety  that  the  ingenuity  of 
man  can  devise  has  been  made.  She  has  a  cellular  double  bottom 
divided  into  twenty-four  tanks,  and  the  inside  of  the  hull  proper  is 
divided  into  twenty-one  water-tight  compartments,  while  twenty-six 
lifeboats  provide  for  any  emergency.  So  popular  has  the  Deutsch- 
land,  the  fastest  steamship  of  the  nineteenth  century,  proved,  that 
on  one  western  voyage  $143,000  was  collected  for  passenger  fares. 

The  "Great  Eastern."  After  the  trips  of  the  Sirius  and 
Great  Western  had  proved  the  practicability  of  the  scheme  other 
transatlantic  lines  were  soon  established.  The  Cunard  line  in  1840, 
whose  proud  boast  is  still  that  they  have  never  lost  a  passenger;  the 
Bremen  line  in  1847,  the  Havre  line  in  1848.  The  Collins  line  fol- 
lowed in  1850,  and  soon  steamships  were  plowing  certain  well  recog- 
nized routes  of  travel.  By  1852  it  had  been  demonstrated  that 
steamers  running  from  England  to  Australia  usually  lost  from  $5,000 
to  $50,000  on  a  voyage,  owing  to  the  necessity  of  stopping  often  to 
replenish  their  coal  bunkers,  such  stops  taking  them  out  of  the 
shortest  lines  of  travel  and  consuming  so  much  extra  time  that  the 
fastest  sailing  ships  made  as  quick  passages  and  at  less  expense. 
Studying  this  problem,  Brunei,  the  great  engineer,  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  a  vessel  of  25,000  tons  capacity  could  carry  ample  coal 
supplies  and  have  room  enough  left  for  freight  and  passengers  to 
operate  at  a  profit.  He  interested  capitalists,  organized  the  Eastern 
Steam  Navigation  Company  with  a  capital  of  £1,200,000,  and  work 
on  the  Great  Eastern,  until  1899  the  largest  ship  in  the  world, 
was  begun  May  I,  1854.  The  hull  was  made  double,  at  that  time 
an  unusual  construction,  the  outer  and  inner  shells  being  two  feet 
ten  inches  apart,  with  partitions  running  lengthwise  and  crosswise 


218          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

dividing  the  space  into  water-tight  cells  about  six  feet  square.  The 
interior  of  the  ship  was  divided  by  transverse  bulkheads  (partitions 
crossing)  into  twelve  water-tight  compartments  below  the  lower  deck 
and  nine  compartments  above.  Two  of  these  compartments  might 
be  filled  with  water  without  endangering  the  safety  of  the  ship. 
Two  bulkheads  extending  from  the  bottom  of  the  ship  to  the  upper 
deck  ran  lengthwise  for  about  350  feet.  To  reduce  the  draft  she 
was  built  with  a  flat  bottom  without  any  keel.  About  30,000  iron 
plates,  averaging  ten  feet  by  two  feet  nine  inches,  and  three  fourths 
inch  thick,  and  2,000,000  rivets,  the  whole  weighing  about  9000 
tons,  were  used  in  the  construction  of  her  hull.  The  vessel  when 
completed  had  an  extreme  length  of  692  feet ;  breadth  across  the 
paddle  boxes,  118  feet;  breadth  of  hull,  83  feet;  depth  from  bottom 
to  upper  deck,  58  feet;  six  masts,  two  paddle  wheels  56  feet  in  di- 
ameter, weighing  185  tons,  or  more  than  Fulton's  first  steamboat. 
Ten  boilers  heated  by  112  furnaces  furnished  the  steam  to  turn  the 
paddle  wheels  and  a  screw  propeller  twenty-four  feet  in  diameter. 
Her  draft  when  empty  was  fifteen  feet  six  inches;  when  fully  laden, 
thirty  feet.  The  vessel  was  so  long  that  she  could  not  be  launched 
stern  first  as  is  customary,  so  1400  piles  were  driven  in  the  mud 
along  the  river  bank  and  she  was  built  and  launched  sideways.  They 
first  tried  to  launch  her  November  3,  1857,  but  moved  her  only  six 
feet.  Several  unsuccessful  triajs  followed,  and  it  was  not  until  Jan- 
uary 31,  1858,  that  she  was  afloat.  She  at  that  time  had;.  cost 
$3>555>IO°-  I*1  1858  the  company  became  financially  embarrassed, 
was  dissolved,  and  a  new  corporation,  called  the  Great  Ship  Com- 
pany, formed,  and  the  ship  completed.  When  fully  equipped  her 
displacement  was  about  27,000  tons  and  her  engines  developed  about 
12,000  horse-power.  '  She  had  accommodations  for  800  first  class 
passengers,  2000  second  class,  1200  third  class;  or  more  than  any 
ship  ever  built.  However,  on  her  first  voyage  she  carried  only 


TRANSPORTATION.  2IQ 

thirty-eight  passengers  and  eight  guests.  She  left  Southampton 
June  17,  1860,  and  arrived  at  New  York  in  eleven  days  and  two 
hours,  having  steamed  3188  knots,  at  an  average  speed  of  twelve 
knots  an  hour.  Her  greatest  speed  was  about  14^  knots  an  hour. 
She  consumed  2877  tons  of  coal.  Even  at  that  time  other  steamers 
were  speedier  than  she.  The  Baltic,  of  the  Collins  line,  the  same 
year  ran  from  New  York  to  Liverpool  in  nine  days,  thirteen  hours, 
and  thirty  minutes.  The  greatest  service  the  Great  Eastern  per- 
formed was  in  laying  the  Atlantic  cable,  for  which  work  her  great 
bulk  and  steadiness  in  rough  seas  especially  fitted  her.  In  1875, 
when  put  in  dry  dock  that  her  bottom  might  be  cleaned,  it  was  esti- 


THE    "  OCEANIC." 

mated  that  from  52,000  square  feet  of  her  hull,  rather  more  than  an 
acre,  mussels  six  inches  in  thickness  and  weighing  about  300  tons 
were  removed,  or  nearly  as  much  as  the  entire  tonnage  of  the  Savan- 
nah, the  first  steamer  to  cross  the  ocean.  The  Great  Eastern  was 
not  a  financial  success.  In  1880  the  directors  of  the  company  to 
which  she  belonged  reported  she  had  run  them  in  debt  between  $40,- 
ooo  and  $50,000  annually.  She  was  sold  to  a  man  who  used  her  for 
exhibition  purposes.  Later  she  was  broken  up  and  sold  for  old  iron. 
The  "Oceanic."  It  was  not  until  1899  that  a  larger  ship  than 


220 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


the  Great  Eastern  was  constructed.  Then  the  Oceanic  was  launched 
with  a  total  length  of  704  feet,  12  feet  more  than  the  Great  Eastern, 
and  a  displacement  of  28,500  tons  to  the  27,000  tons  of  the  other. 
The  Oceanic  has  five  steel  decks  running  from  stem  to  stern.  She  is 

made  with  a  double  bottom,  the 
intervening  space  being  from  five 
to  seven  feet.  The  plates  range 
in  thickness  from  one  to  one  and 
one  half  inches.  She  has  twin 
screw  propellers  turned  by  triple 
compound  engines  of  28,000  horse- 

LAUNCH  OF  THE 

OCEANIC.--  power.      She  can  accommodate  410 

first  class  passengers,  300  second  class,  1000  third  class. 
The  Oceanic  was  constructed  by  the  White  Star  line  at 
a  cost  of  $5,000,000,  with  the  avowed  object  of  fur- 
nishing a  steady  sea-going  boat  that  might  be  depended  upon  to  ar- 
rive in  port  on  schedule  time  irrespective  of  the  weather.  Extreme 
speed  was  not  expected  of  her,  yet  she  can  make  2  I  ^  knots  an  hour. 
Larger  ships  are  now  being  constructed,  and  it  is  likely  the  twentieth 
century  will  see  others  yet  larger  and  faster.  The  following  table 
gives  the  principal  dimensions  of  the  largest  ships. 


Line 

Steamship 

Launched 

Length 

Beam 

Draft 

Displacement 

Horse- 

Speed 

Feet 

Feet 

Feet 

Tons 

Power 

Great  Ship 
Company 

i  Great  Eastern 

1858 

692 

83 

i'5/ 

31,000) 
27,000  J 

I2,OOO 

14.5 

American 

City  of  Paris 

l889 

560 

63 

26% 

I5,OOO 

20,000 

20.25 

White  Star 

Teutonic 

1890 

585 

57/2 

26 

13,800 

l8,OOO 

19.50 

Cunard 

Campagnia 

1893 

625 

65 

28 

19,000 

3O,OOO 

22.1 

American 

St.  Paul 

1895 

554 

63 

27 

l6,OOO 

2O,OOO 

21 

North  Ger- 
man Lloyd 

)  Kaiser  Wilhelm 
)        der  Grosse 

l897 

649 

66 

29 

2O,OOO 

28,OOO 

22.62 

White  Star 

Oceanic 

I899 

704 

68 

32X 

28,500 

28,OOO 

2I.2S 

Hamburg- 
American 

|  Deutschland 

1900 

686 

67 

28 

23,OOO 

36,913 

23-36 

North  Ger- 
man Lloyd 

>  Kaiser  Wil- 
\       helm  II. 

}     ? 

705 

? 

? 

26,OOO 

38,000 

> 

White  Star 

? 

? 

75° 

? 

? 

32,000 

? 

TRANSPORTATION. 


221 


The  "  Turbinia."  The  nineteenth  century  has  left  the  twentieth 
century  the  development  and  perfection  of  the  steam  turbine.  In 
all  engines  of  the  piston  principle  there  are  many  reciprocating  parts 
that  must  be  stopped  at  the  end  of  each  stroke  and  started  the  other 
way.  There  is  great  strain  attendant  upon  this,  and  the  energy 
required  for  its  performance  is  sheer  waste.  Various  methods  are 
employed  to  overcome  this  strain  ;  for  example,  where  four  engines 
are  attached  to  a  propeller  shaft  the  cranks  are  turned  at  right  angles 


THE  "OCEANIC"  COMPARED  WITH  BROADWAY  BUILDINGS. 

From  "  The  Progress  of  Invention  in  the  Nineteenth  Century." 

to  each  other,  like  four  spokes  in  a  wheel,  and  the  reciprocating  parts 
of  one  engine  balanced  as  much  as  possible  by  those  of  another.  It 
was  the  shock  and  strain  of  reciprocating  parts  that  recently  nearly 
wrecked  the  St.  Paul.  An  accident  to  the  propeller  set  the  machin- 
ery to  racing  at  high  speed,  and  the  centrifugal  force  of  the  unbal- 
anced parts  soon  wrecked  the  machinery  and  made  the  engine  room 
look  as  though  a  torpedo  had  struck  it. 

Parsons  Steam  Turbine.  The  losses  due  to  reciprocating  parts 
are  well  understood  and  have  engaged  the  attention  of  many  able 
inventors  who  have  constructed  engines  without  such  parts.  Nearly 


222 


THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 


2000  patents  have  been  granted  in  the  United  States  alone  for  such 
termed  rotary  engines.  Of  these  Parsons  steam  turbine  is  at  present 
the  best  advertised  because  applied  in  1897  to  the  yacht  Turbinia. 
It  drove  her  at  the  rate  of  32^  knots  an  hour,  which  was  then  con- 
sidered a  wonderful  speed,  and  later,  applied  to  the  Viper,  has  ena- 
bled her  to  cover  a  measured  mile  at  the  rate 
of  37.1  knots  an  hour,  or  42.67  statute 
miles.  In  reciprocating  engines  the  piston 
is  forced  back  and  forth,  as  steam  is  applied 
to  each  side  of  it,  but  in  the  turbine  a  disc 
bearing  vanes  or  flanges,  against  which 
steam  impinges,  revolves  continuously  in 
one  direction  like  a  windmill,  and  there  is 
no  stopping  and  starting  of  pistons,  cross- 
heads,  slide  valves,  etc.  Roughly,  the  Par- 
sons steam  turbine  may  be  said  to  consist 
of  a  cylinder  with  inside  rings  or  diaphragms 
through  which  steam  is  guided  and  directed 
against  moving  blades  fixed  to  a  revolving 
shaft,  turning  something  like  a  windmill, 
with  slats  like  a  Venetian  blind.  There 
may  be  a  series  of  such  rings  and  blades 
within  the  cylinder.  Steam,  passing  through 
the  first,  acts  upon  the  first  set  of  blades  and  so  on  through  all. 

The  De  Laval  turbine  consists  of  a  steel  wheel  with  a  series  of 
vanes  or  buckets  at  its  outer  rim,  against  which  jets  of  steam  are 
directed,  causing  the  wheel  to  revolve.  A  speed  of  30,000  revolu- 
tions a  minute  has  been  reached  with  the  De  Laval  turbine,  and  it  is 
peculiarly  adapted  to  running  high  speed  dynamos.  One  precaution 
that  has  to  be  taken  with  turbines  moving  at  such  high  speed  is  that 
the  rotating  parts  must  move  about  their  absolute  center  of  mass 


TEUTONIC  IN  DRY  DOCK. 
Showing  Screw  Propellers. 


TRANSPORTATION.  223 

and  not  their  geometrical  center  of  figure.  Ordinary  workmen  can- 
not perform  such  infinitesimally  fine  work  as  to  construct  bearings 
which  accomplish  this,  so  it  is  necessary  to  make  some  arrangement 
by  which  the  machine  will  attend  to  this  adjustment  for  itself.  Par- 
sons makes  the  bearings  of  several  concentric  bushings  fitting  over 
each  other  loosely  and  fills  the  small  space  between  them  by  forcing 
it  full  of  oil  under  pressure.  Such  fittings  allow  the  shaft  to  dis- 
place the  bearings  ever  so  slightly  in  the  direction  required.  De 
Laval  mounts  his  wheel  on  a  long  slender  spindle,  that  the  latter 
may  spring  enough  to  give  the  desired  result,  but  a  large  number  of 
De  Laval's  spindles  have  broken,  showing  the  method  is  imperfect, 
for  a  speed  of  17,000  revolutions  per  minute  means  over  a  million 
changes  of  stresses  an  hour,  and  this  is  enough  to  worry  the  life  out 
of  the  best  steel  in  a  comparatively  short  time. 

Since  the  turbine  moves  continuously  in  one  direction  it  has  the 
marked  advantage  of  being  free  from  the  vibrations  inherent  in  other 
engines  that  use  reciprocating  parts.  The  thrust  of  the  propeller 
that  with  ordinary  engines  is  taken  up  by  collars  and  thrust  blocks  is 
balanced  by  the  pressure  of  the  steam  against  the  turbine  and  the 
friction  saved.  The  engines  of  turbines  with  all  their  auxiliary  gear 
weigh  less  per  horse-power  than  in  the  reciprocating  type,  but 
greater  boiler  surface  is  necessary  to  produce  the  vast  amount  of 
steam  required,  and  the  increased  weight  of  boilers  materially  re- 
duces the  credit  for  weight  saved  by  the  engines. 

The  "Viper,"  the  fastest  vessel  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
showed  on  her  various  trials  as  high  as  35^  knots,  or  practically  41 
statute  miles  an  hour,  and  covered  one  mile  at  37.1  knots  an  hour. 
She  has  four  propeller  shafts,  two  on  each  side  driven  by  two 
duplicate  engines,  one  on  each  side.  The  two  innermost  propeller 
shafts  have  attached  an  additional  small  reversing  turbine  to  which 
steam  is  admitted  when  the  vessel  is  reversed,  and  which  revolves 


224          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

idly  with  the  shaft  when  the  vessel  goes  ahead.  To  reverse  the  ves- 
sel, steam  is  cut  off  from  the  propelling  turbines  and  applied  to  the 
reversing  turbines.  No  thoroughly  satisfactory  means  has  been 
devised  for  reversing  the  regular  turbine.  It  is  generally  believed 
that  steam  turbines  are  not  economical  users  of  coal.  The  Viper 
has  a  displacement  of  385  tons.  Running  at  31,118  knots  she 
burned  19,846  pounds  of  coal  per  hour.  The  Albatross  is  a  boat  of 
the  same  class  fitted  with  reciprocating  engines  and  having  a  displace- 
ment of  384^4  tons.  Running  at  the  rate  of  31.552  knots,  she  con- 
sumed 17,474  pounds  of  coal  per  hour,  showing  economy  of  2372 
pounds  of  coal  in  favor  of  the  reciprocating  engine. 

CANALS. 

Birthplace  of  Civilization.  The  origin  of  the  canal  is  lost  in 
the  mists  of  antiquity  that  surround  the  valleys  of  the  Nile  and  the 
Euphrates,  rival  claimants  for  the  credit  of  the  birthplace  of  civiliza- 
tion. The  explorations  conducted  by  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
in  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates  have  brought  to  light  indisputable  proof 
of  the  existence  of  a  high  civilization  there  thousands  of  years  before 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era.  The  country  supported  a  dense 
population,  having  colleges  and  libraries  well  established  more  than 
a  thousand  years  before  Abram  and  his  family  left  "  Ur  of  the  Chal- 
dees  to  go  into  the  land  of  Canaan."  The  lower  valleys  of  the 
Euphrates  and  Tigris  rivers  were  connected  by  a  network  of  irri- 
gating ditches,  some  of  which  reached  the  dignity  of  canals  large 
enough  to  afford  passageway  for  the  boats  of  the  period.  The  stra- 
tegic value  of  the  canal  was  recognized,  and  canal  centers  were  com- 
manded by  towers  built  to  defend  them,  for  the  water  supply  was 
the  life  of  the  country,  and  when  more  warlike  and  less  enlightened 
tribes  from  the  north  invaded  the  land  and  broke  down  the  dams  and 
canals  the  country  lapsed  into  that  state  of  decay  and  barrenness 
that  characterizes  it  to-day. 


TRANSPORTATION.  225 

De  Lesseps  Anticipated.  The  valley  of  the  Nile  has  also  an 
interesting  history.  Egyptologists  have  shown  that  at  different 
times  it  has  been  connected  by  a  canal  with  the  Red  Sea,  probably 
before  Joseph  "went  down  into  Egypt."  The  valley  of  the  Nile, 
like  that  of  the  Euphrates,  depended  upon  irrigation,  and  what  more 
natural  than  the  development  of  a  canal  for  commercial  purposes 
from  an  irrigating  ditch? 

Chinese  Canals.  The  Grand  Canal  of  China,  in  operation  to- 
day, and  bearing  the  burden  of  a  large  part  of  its  inland  commerce, 
connects  the  rivers  Pei-Ho  and  Yang-tse-Kiang.  The  canal  is 
about  560  miles  long  and  with  the  connecting  rivers  furnishes  an 
inland  waterway  of  more  than  2000  miles,  an  important  consideration 
in  a  country  where  the  religion  of  its  people  will  not  allow  railroads 
to  cross  the  graves  of  their  ancestors.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
although  the  country  is  supposed  to  have  a  population  of  about 
400,000,000  souls  it  has  only  about  600  miles  of  railroad  and  4000 
miles  of  telegraph  line.  Small  wonder  that  millions  of  its  inhabit- 
ants never  heard  of  its  late  war  with  Japan ! 

The  little  kingdom  of  the  Netherlands  represents  a  victory 
wrung  by  man  from  the  forces  of  nature.  Much  of  its  surface  lies 
below  the  level  of  the  sea,  which  is  held  back  by  powerful  embank- 
ments. The  construction  of  canals  was  begun  there  in  the  twelfth 
century  and  they  have  been  developed  to  such  an  extent  that  those 
for  drainage  and  communication  now  have  a  total  length  of  1,907,17° 
miles,  while  the  area  of  the  country  is  only  12,656  square  miles. 

The  Amsterdam  Canal.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  feats  of 
modern  engineering  was  the  construction  of  the  Amsterdam  Canal, 
connecting  that  city  with  the  North  Sea.  The  canal  is  15^  miles 
long,  88  feet  wide  at  the  bottom,  197  feet  wide  at  the  top,  and  has  a 
depth  of  23  feet  of  water.  Its  level  is  20  inches  below  that  of  the 
sea  at  low  tide  and  this  has  necessitated  the  building  of  an  artificial 


226          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

harbor,  dikes,  gates,  and  enormous  centrifugal  pumps,  the  latter 
being  able  to  discharge  440,000  gallons  of  water  per  minute. 

Baltic  and  North  Sea  Canal.  Germany  has  1452  miles  of  ca- 
nals and  1371  miles  of  canalized  rivers.  The  most  important  canal  is 
the  Baltic  and  North  Sea  Canal,  opened  in  1895  and  costing  $40,000,- 
ooo ;  it  runs  from  Kiel  on  the  Baltic  Sea,  southwesterly  across  the 
isthmus  which  connects  Germany  with  Denmark,  to  the  south  of  the 
river  Elbe.  It  is  61  miles  long,  85  feet  wide  at  the  bottom,  196  feet 
wide  at  water  level,  and  has  a  depth  of  29*4  feet  of  water,  affording  a 
passage  for  the  most  powerful  warships  of  the  German  navy.  It  was 
built  by  the  Government  and  its  strategic  value  was  its  chief  consid- 
eration. It  gives  Germany  an  outlet  to  the  sea  without  having  to 
brave  the  dangers  of  a  stormy  passage  around  Denmark ;  no  small 
consideration,  for  from  1858  to  1885  the  storms  and  ice  floes  wrecked 
2800  vessels,  and  from  1877  to  1881,  708  lives  were  lost  on  this  route. 

Theoretically,  the  whole  canal  is  at  the  Baltic  Sea  level.  It  is  prac- 
tically unaffected  by  the  tides,  but  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  North  Sea 
on  the  Elbe  is  so  high  that  tidal  locks  have  to  be  established.  Storm 
gates  are  required  on  the  other  end  twenty-five  days  in  the  year,  but 
the  tide  locks  at  the  Elbe  will  be  kept  closed  except  during  three 
hours  of  ebb  tide.  These  locks  are  like  ordinary  canal  locks  and  a 
vessel  can  pass  through  without  delay.  This  canal  is  operated  at  a 
loss,  the  deficit  in  1898  being  $245,000  and  in  1899  $108,000. 

Isthmus  of  Corinth  Canal.  Until  a  ship  canal  was  cut  across 
the  Isthmus  of  Corinth  in  Greece  all  the  vessels  trading  between  the 
Mediterranean  ports  of  France,  Spain,  Italy,  and  Austria  and  the 
ports  of  Greece,  Turkey,  Asia  Minor,  the  Black  Sea,  and  the  Lower 
Danube  were  obliged  to  go  around  Cape  Matapan.  The  canal  cuts 
the  isthmus  in  a  straight  line  at  its  narrowest  part,  its  length  being 
just  under  four  miles,  and  reaches  deep  water  at  both  ends  about  225 
yards  from  the  shore.  Its  bottom  width  is  72  feet,  width  at  the  sur- 


TRANSPORTATION.  22  / 

face  of  the  water  77^  feet,  depth  26^  feet.  The  canal  is  perfectly 
straight  and  the  navigator  can  see  through  it  from  one  end  to  the 
other.  The  sides  of  the  canal  from  the  bottom  to  6^  feet  above 
the  surface  of  the  water  are  lined  with  concrete  blocks  to  protect  the 
banks  from  the  "wash"  of  passing  vessels.  This  canal  saves  for 
goods  from  Adriatic  ports  185  nautical  miles,  from  Mediterranean 
ports  95  miles.  It  was  across  this  isthmus  that  the  Athenians  hauled 
their  war  galleys  three  hundred  years  before  Christ.  These  vessels 
had  three  banks  of  oars  and  often  had  crews  of  more  than  two  hun- 
dred men,  and  are  supposed  to  have  been  of  about  150  tons  burden. 
The  canal  was  open  to  navigation  November  8,  1893. 

Canals  of  France.  France  has  a  good  system  of  canals,  but 
combines  very  strangely  some  of  the  latest  hydraulic  lifts  with  the 
most  primitive  methods  of  propulsion,  for  on  some  of  her  inland 
waterways  two  men  are  often  employed  to  haul  a  boat  of  from  60  to 
i  10  tons  burden  eleven  to  sixteen  miles  per  day.  A  man  and  a  horse 
harnessed  together  can  haul  the  same  boat  about  eighteen  miles  per 
day. 

Military  Advantages.  Plans  for  a  ship  canal  from  the  North  Sea 
to  the  Mediterranean  are  very  dear  to  the  French  heart.  Since 
England  holds  Gibraltar  (the  entrance  to  the  Mediterranean)  such  a 
canal  would  be  of  great  strategic  value  to  France  in  case  of  war  with 
her,  and  more  especially  so  if  France's  "great  and  good  friend" 
Russia  were  to  complete  the  proposed  ship  canal  from  the  Black  Sea 
to  the  Baltic.  Such  canals  would  enable  the  two  countries  to  con- 
centrate their  fleets  either  in  the  Mediterranean  or  the  North  Sea  as 
occasion  might  require,  and  would  furnish  a  safe  passage  through 
their  own  territory  for  the  greater  part  of  the  distance. 

Suez  Canal.  However,  it  is  chiefly  through  her  famous  engi- 
neer, Ferdinand  De  Lesseps,  that  France  has  become  famous  in  canal 
building.  It  was  he  that  in  1858  formed  the  Suez  Canal  Company 


228          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

with  a  capital  of  $40,000,000.  He  secured  from  the  Khedive  of 
Egypt,  by  a  gift  of  a  large  block  of  the  stock,  the  desired  permission 
to  construct  the  canal.  It  was  begun  in  April,  1859,  and  opened 
with  imposing  ceremonies  in  1869.  Its  length  was  103  miles,  width 
at  bottom  72  feet,  depth  26  feet.  Its  total  cost  to  1870  was  $83,- 
000,000,  but  of  this  sum  only  $58,000,000  was  actually  expended  on 
the  construction,  the  remainder  being  devoted  to  the  financiering  of 
the  project.  Since  then  the  canal  has  been  widened,  deepened,  and 
the  approaches  improved  until  it  has  now  cost  more  than  $100,000,- 
ooo.  The  net  tonnage  passing  through  the  canal  in  1870  was 
439,911.  In  1880  it  had  grown  to  3,057,421  ;  in  1885,  to  6,335, 753; 
and  in  1891  to  8,698,777. 

The  opening  of  the  canal  lessened  the  time  necessary  for  voyages 
to  the  East  more  than  one  half.  By  it  the  sea  distance  from  English 
ports  to  ports  in  India,  China,  and  Australia  was  decreased  more  than 
4300  nautical  miles.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  England  at  first 
strongly  opposed  the  building  of  the  canal,  but  the  ways  of  trade  are 
peculiar,  for  to-day  English  capital  controls  it,  having  secured  the 
stock  of  the  Khedive.  The  English  occupation  of  Egypt  makes  the 
canal  almost  exclusively  an  English  waterway. 

Tolls  and  Tonnage.  It  takes  about  twenty-two  hours  for  a  ves- 
sel to  pass  through  the  canal,  and  the  tolls  are  ten  francs  (about 
$2.00)  per  net  ton.  In  the  Spanish- American  war  it  cost  Camara's 
fleet  thousands  of  dollars  to  pass  through  the  canal  and  make  a  pre- 
tense of  reinforcing  Manila.  Admiral  Dewey,  on  his  passage 
through  in  the  Olympia  paid  as  toll  $3,516.04.  The  net  tonnage  in 
1898  was  9,238,603,  and  the  receipts  $17,581,200,  leaving  a  surplus 
over  expenditures  of  $9,757,800.  The  stock  now  sells  at  about  five 
times  its  par  value. 

Panama  Designs.  Having  made  an  assured  success  of  the  Suez 
Canal,  De  Lesseps  turned  his  attention  to  the  isthmus  separating  the 


TRANSPORTATION.  229 

continents  of  North  and  South  America.  This  at  its  narrowest  part 
is  31  miles  in  width.  The  valley  of  the  Chagres  river  seemed  to 
offer  the  most  promising  passage,  as  the  summit  there  is  only  263 
feet  above  sea  level.  There  are  many  difficulties  to  be  encountered 
there  not  found  at  Suez.  Panama,  the  city  on  the  Pacific  side  of 
the  isthmus,  has  no  good  harbor,  and  the  tides  there  rise  from  twelve 
to  twenty-two  feet.  Many  small  rivers  descend  both  coasts  and  the 
rainfall  is  exceedingly  heavy.  The  route  chosen  was  from  Chagres 
on  the  Atlantic  side  to  New  Panama  on  the  Pacific  side. 

In  1879,  upon  the  invitation  of  Count  Ferdinand  De  Lesseps, 
delegates  from  twenty-four  countries  to  a  canal  congress  assembled 
in  Paris.  The  congress  made  De  Lesseps  president  and  recommended 
a  sea  level  canal.  Upon  the  adjournment  of  the  convention  the  Uni- 
versal Interoceanic  Canal  Company  was  organized  by  De  Lesseps. 
Subscriptions  were  received  and  a  route  forty-six  miles  in  length  with 
the  following  dimensions  planned.  Bottom  breadth,  72  to  78  feet; 
breadth  at  water  level,  92  to  164  feet;  depth,  28  to  29^  feet. 

Difficulties  of  the  Work.  The  work  was  begun  but  the  project 
met  with  great  difficulties.  The  water  flow  of  the  Chagres  river  during 
the  rainy  season  had  been  underestimated  and  caused  great  damage. 
The  climate  was  hot  and  a  fertile  field  for  the  tropical  fevers  which 
follow  close  upon  the  breaking  of  the  soil.  The  different  layers  of 
earth,  shale,  rock,  etc.  were  at  puzzling  angles,  and  sometimes  when 
a  cut  was  made  at  the  foot  of  an  eminence  the  whole  face  of  the 
elevation  would  seem  to  protest  and  come  sliding  down  as  fast  as  cut 
away.  The  first  estimate  of  the  canal  was  about  $120,000,000.  By 
1889  $200,000,000  had  been  expended  and  the  money  was  ex- 
hausted. 

Panama  Scandal  and  Bankruptcy.  New  funds  could  not  be 
raised  and  the  work  ceased.  A  committee  sent  to  investigate  re- 
ported that  it  would  cost  $243,000,000  to  complete  the  canal.  The 


230  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

company  failed  and  went  into  the  hands  of  a  receiver,  who  reported 
in  1890  that  he  thought  it  would  require  $600,000,000  to  complete 
the  canal.  Meanwhile  the  French  government  had  ordered  an  in- 
vestigation, the  gravest  financial  scandals  were  uncovered,  and  sev- 
eral prominent  in  politics  and  finance  were  found  guilty  and  punished, 
among  them  De  Lesseps'  son  Charles. 

Report  of  International  Commission.  In  1894  a  new  company 
was  formed  to  complete  the  Panama  canal.  It  made  a  minute  in- 
vestigation, requiring  the  services  of  150  engineers  for  four  years. 
When  the  committee  reported  the  French  government  invited  an  in- 
ternational commission  composed  of  ten  engineers  of  high  authority 
from  the  United  States,  Great  Britain,  Germany,  Russia,  and  France, 
among  them  the  directors  of  the  Kiel  and  Manchester  canals,  to  ex- 
amine the  new  estimate.  The  commission  organized  in  1896  and 
rendered  their  decision  December  2,  1898.  They  approved  unan- 
imously the  plans  and  estimates  of  the  French  committee,  which 
declared  the  canal  to  be  about  two  fifths  completed  and  that  it  would 
require  eight  or  ten  years  and  about  $102,204,000  to  fully  complete 
it.  The  new  company  has  kept  about  three  thousand  laborers  em- 
ployed since  then.  They  are  able  to  do  only  enough  to  keep  the 
work  from  deteriorating  and  prevent  the  concession  from  being  for- 
feited while  fresh  capital  is  being  raised.  With  abundant  capital  it 
is  thought  that  the  work  could  be  completed  in  about  eight  years. 

De  Lesseps'  Career.  The  career  of  this  financier,  diplomat,  and 
engineer  merits  some  notice.  Ferdinand  De  Lesseps,  born  in  Ver- 
sailles, 1805,  was  a  cousin  of  Empress  Eugenie,  wife  of  Napoleon 
III.  He  had  brooded  over  the  Suez  canal  scheme  for  years.  The 
emperor  and  empress  approved  his  plans  and  this  was  enough  to 
arouse  the  prejudice  and  opposition  of  England,  whose  newspapers 
and  engineers  pronounced  it  visionary  and  impossible.  The  conces- 
sion was  granted  in  1856  and  work  was  begun  in  1859.  The  English 


TRANSPORTATION.  231 

government  opposed  the  project  and  disputed  the  legality  of  the 
viceroy's  action  and  through  its  influence  the  concession  was  can- 
celed. In  spite  of  all  difficulties  a  small  channel  was  opened  August 
15,  1865,  which  was  widened  and  deepened  until,  November  20, 
1869,  a  tide  water  canal  100  miles  long,  which  Robert  Stephenson 
and  other  eminent  engineers  had  to  the  last  declared  impossible,  was 
opened  with  imposing  ceremony.  De  Lesseps  was  also  the  promoter 
of  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth  canal. 

When  the  Panama  scandals  were  exposed  Ferdinand  De  Lesseps, 
who  knew  nothing  of  the  corrupt  practices  of  which  his  son  and  the 
other  directors  had  been  guilty,  was  indicted  with  the  others  and  re- 
ceived, February  9,  1893,  a  sentence  of  five  years'  imprisonment. 
He  was  not  in  court  and  was  ignorant  of  the  legal  proceedings,  for 
he  had  long  suffered  from  paralytic  strokes  impairing  his  vitality  and 
consciousness.  The  pathetic  picture  of  an  old  man  who  had  done  so 
much  for  French  honor  touched  the  popular  heart,  and  the  knowl- 
edge of  his  disgrace  was  kept  from  him.  He  died  near  Paris  Decem- 
ber 7,  1894. 

English  Canals.  The  canals  of  England  date  back  to  the  time 
of  the  Roman  occupation,  for  the  Foss  Dyke,  a  canal  of  Lincoln- 
shire, was  originally  made  by  the  Romans.  The  improvement  of 
her  internal  waterways  early  received  attention,  and  there  are  locks 
on  the  river  Lee  more  than  four  centuries  old.  It  is  amusing  to 
read  of  the  quarrel  between  the  town  of  Exeter,  situated  on  the 
Exe  river,  and  the  Earl  of  Devon,  who  in  1316  built  dams  in  the 
river  and  spoiled  it  as  a  waterway. 

Manchester.  It  is  to  Francis,  Duke  of  Bridgewater,  more  than 
to  any  other  person,  that  England  owes  the  development  of  her  inter- 
nal waterways.  In  1750,  owing  to  the  lack  of  transportation  facili- 
ties and  ignorance  concerning  use  of  coal  in  iron  smelting,  only 
18,000  tons  of  iron  were  produced  in  all  England.  Four  fifths 


232  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

of  its  iron  was  imported  from  Sweden.  Roads  which  had  been 
fairly  good  during  the  Middle  Ages  broke  down  under  increased 
traffic.  "  The  new  lines  of  trade  lay  often  along  mere  country  lanes 
which  had  never  been  more  than  horse  tracks,  and  to  drive  heavy 
wains  through  lanes  like  these  was  all  but  impossible.  Much  of  the 
woolen  trade,  therefore,  had  to  be  carried  on  by  means  of  long  trains 
of  pack  horses,  and  in  most  cases  the  cost  of  carriage  added  heavily 
to  the  cost  of  production.  In  the  case  of  yet  heavier  goods,  such  as 
coal,  distribution  was  almost  impracticable  save  along  the  greater 
rivers  of  any  districts  accessible  from  the  sea."  * 

Effect  on  Freight  Rates.  The  Duke  of  Bridgewater  owned  col- 
lieries at  Worsley  whose  value  depended  on  Manchester  as  a  market. 
To  bring  this  coal  to  market,  he  planned  a  canal  from  his  mines  to 
the  river  Irwell,  and  James  Brindley  executed  the  plans  for  him. 
Encouraged  by  his  success,  the  duke  later  connected  Manchester  by 
canal  with  Liverpool,  35  miles  away.  Many  vested  interests  fought 
this  project  bitterly,  and  called  the  undertaking  "  the  Duke  of 
Bridgewater's  folly,"  but  after .  sixteen  years  of  strenuous  opposition 
the  indomitable  duke  won,  although  the  strife  is  said  to  have 
shortened  his  life.  The  gain  to  transportation  was  at  once  apparent. 
The  freight  rate  between  Liverpool  and  Manchester  fell  from  forty 
shillings  a  ton  to  eight  shillings  a  ton,  a  new  use  was  found  for  coal, 
and  England  found  the  richest  of  all  markets,  the  market  of  England 
itself.  Although  Great  Britain  has  4700  miles  of  canals,  or  more 
than  any  other  country  in  the  world,  a  description  of  the  Manchester 
ship  canal  will  answer  the  purposes  of  this  article. 

Manchester,  ambitious  for  maritime  trade,  decided  in  1884  to 
build  a  ship  canal  35^  miles  long,  connecting  it  with  ocean  naviga- 
tion at  Liverpool.  The  latter  city  had  always  been  the  port  for 
Manchester,  and,  fearing  a  loss  of  prestige,  would  not  contribute  any 

*  Green's  Greater  History  of  the  English  People. 


TRANSPORTATION.  233 

money  to  the  canal  scheme.  With  characteristic  energy  Manchester 
shouldered  the  burden  and  after  expending  $77,000,000  on  the 
scheme  opened  the  canal  with  appropriate  ceremonies  January. 14, 
1894.  The  canal  is  125  feet  wide  at  the  bottom  and  averages  more 
than  170  feet  at  water  level,  being  wide  enough  for  ships  to  pass  at 
any  point.  It  is  26  feet  deep  in  any  part  and  rises  by  means  of  four 
sets  of  locks,  from  sea  level  to  60  feet  6  inches  at  Manchester.  The 
right  of  way  was  expensive,  many  engineering  difficulties  were  en- 
countered, and  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater's  canal  lay  right  across  its 
path.  This  canal,  that  threatened  to  be  such  an  obstacle,  now  has 
its  boats  taken  up  in  a  water  cradle,  lifted  over  the  Manchester  canal 
and  deposited  on  the  other  side.  All  structures  crossing  the  canal 
have  been  placed  75  feet  overhead  to  afford  room  for  the  rigging  of 
passing  ships. 

Now  comes  one  of  the  strange  freaks  of  trade,  for  Manchester, 
contrary  to  expectation,  is  not  a  great  seaport  town.  The  local 
shipping  between  it  arid  Liverpool  has  increased,  but  the  tolls  on  the 
canal  average  only  $175,000  per  year,  or  less  than  enough  to  pay 
operating  expenses  and  interest  on  the  debt  incurred,  so  the  people 
of  Manchester  are  taxed  to  feed  the  "  White  Elephant  "  while  Liver- 
pool reaps  great  benefit  from  one  of  the  great  achievements  of  modern 
engineering, —  a  canal  which  she  feared  so  much  when  first  planned 
that  she  would  not  contribute  to  its  construction.  May  not  the 
Manchester  ship  canal  hold  a  lesson  for  New  York  city? 

Canadian  Canals.*  The  history  of  Canadian  canals  is  closely 
linked  with  the  political  history  of  the  country.  The"  first  con- 
structed were  small  barge  canals  around  the  rapids  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence between  Lakes  St.  Louis  and  St.  Francis.  These  were 
constructed  by  the  British  government  during  the  Revolutionary 
War  to  afford  passage  for  military  supplies  to  the  Great  Lakes. 


*  From  data  furnished  by  Prof.  I.  G.  G.  Kerry  of  McGill  University. 


234  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

The  first  lock  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  where  is  now  located  the  busi- 
est canal  in  the  world,  was  built  in  1798  by  a  Montreal  firm  for 
use  in  the  fur  trade.  On  both  the  American  and  Canadian  sides  are 
locks  free  of  tolls  to  vessels  of  both  nationalities.  The  Canadian 
Pacific  and  the  Grand  Trunk  railroads  pass  for  a  short  distance 
through  the  United  States  and  in  exchange  for  the  privilege  of  ship- 
ping goods  "in  bond"  through  on  these  lines,  American  vessels 
and  Canadian  vessels  on  the  St.  Lawrence  canals  are  given  equal 
rights. 

After  the  war  with  the  United  States  (1812-15)  Canada  began 
improvements  on  the  canals,  and  in  1834  a  5-foot  waterway  was 
opened  from  the  Upper  Lakes  to  the  sea. 

The  Welland  canal,  between  Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario,  was  a 
private  enterprise  heavily  subsidized  by  both  the  Canadian  and  the 
home  governments. 

"The  Rideau  canal  was  built  entirely  at  the  expense  of  the 
British  government  and  its  route  was  chosen  in  order  to  be  as  far  dis- 
tant as  possible  from  the  American  border.  It  was  primarily  a  mili- 
tary work."  It  established  water  communication  between  Ottawa 
and  Kingston  and  is  to-day  the  largest  of  the  Canadian  canals  (132^ 
miles)  but  it  has  no  towpath  and  only  8^  miles  of  it  is  canal  proper, 
the  waterway  being  obtained  by  building  large  dams,  forming  ponds 
above  them. 

After  the  union  of  Upper  and  Lower  Canada  in  1841  improve- 
ments in  canal  construction  resulted  in  giving  by  1849  a  9-foot  water- 
way from  Lake  Huron  to  the  sea.  After  the  Confederation  the 
government  undertook  the  construction  of  a  14-foot  waterway  from 
Lake  Superior  to  the  sea  and  the  last  link  of  this,  the  Soulanges 
canal,  14  miles  in  length,  was  completed  in  1900.  The  locks  of  this 
canal  are  270  feet  long,  45  feet  wide,  with  a  minimum  of  14  feet  of 
water. 


TRANSPORTATION.  235 

11  Generally  speaking,  canal  construction  in  Canada  may  be  said 
to  be  entirely  governmental,  and  each  improvement  has  followed  after 
a  great  political  crisis,  as  the  need  of  better  transportation  facilities 
to  knit  the  country  together  was  realized."  Although  superior  to 
the  Erie  canal  it  may  be  said  that  they  have  never  developed  the 
traffic  that  was  expected. 

The  St.  Lawrence  canals  only  are  now  of  great  importance. 
They  afford  1274  miles  of  navigation  in  Canadian  waters,  extending 
from  Montreal  on  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Port  Arthur  on  the  northern 
shore  of  Lake  Superior.  On  this  route  there  are  7 1  miles  of  canal  proper 
with  47  locks,  having  an  aggregate  lift  of  551  feet.  The  locks  will 
not  accommodate  vessels  more  than  225  feet  long  and  of  about  1800 
tons  capacity,  and  should  be  increased  in  length  at  least  50  per  cent. 
They  must  be  closed  through  the  winter  from  December  1st  to  May 
1st. 

Heavy  Tonnage  of  the  Welland.  In  1897  the  vegetable  food 
tonnage  passing  through  the  Welland  canal  exceeded  for  the  first 
time  in  its  history  that  of  the  Erie  canal.  The  grain  rates  by  rail 
from  Chicago  to  Montreal  vary  from  3^  cents  to  4^  cents  per 
bushel.  Canal  tolls  are  10  cents  a  ton  on  grain  and  20  cents  a  ton 
on  coal  east  bound.  Wharfage  at  Montreal  is  6  cents  a  ton  and 
elevator  charges  j£  cent  a  bushel. 

From  the  Great  Lakes  to  England  Direct.  Canals  do  not  furnish 
Canada  adequate  transportation  on  account  of  the  long  winter  freez- 
ing not  only  the  canals  but  the  St.  Lawrence  river.  Up  to  June  30, 
1898,  $72,405,401  had  been  spent  in  canal  construction,  and  $15,- 
067,096  on  repairs,  maintenance,  and  operation.  The  total  revenue 
received  amounted  to  $11,710,240.  The  canal  system  exclusive  of 
interest  on  capital  was  operated  for  the  year  ending  June,  1898,  at  a 
loss  of  $217,093.  November,  1900,  the  steamer  Monk  Haven  left 
Carnegie's  lake  port  Conneaut,  with  a  cargo  of  steel  billets,  for 


236         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

Avonmouth,  England,  by  way  of  the  Lakes  and  the  Welland  canal. 
She  is  the  first  vessel  to  carry  steel  from  the  Great  Lakes  directly  to 
England. 

The  Shifting  Course  of  Trade.  The  courses  of  grain  shipments 
are  changing  somewhat.  November  17,  1900,  the  first  cargo  of 
western  grain  to  be  shipped  by  the  new  Canadian  route  was 
taken  from  the  Great  Northern  railway  elevator  at  Quebec.  That 
elevator  has  a  capacity  of  1,000,000  bushels,  and  American  capital  is 
largely  represented  in  its  construction.  Grain  from  the  Northwest 
shipped  by  this  route  is  brought  from  Duluth  by  steamer  through 
Parry  sound  to  an  elevator  built  at  the  edge  of  deep  water  and  hav- 
ing a  capacity  of  I, "2  50,000  bushels.  It  takes  the  grain  directly  from 
the  vessel  and  loads  it  on  to  the  cars  running  over  the  Canadian 
Atlantic  road  via  Ottawa  to  Quebec.  This  route  shortens  the  dis- 
tance between  Duluth  and  Liverpool  800  miles.  Trains  at  Quebec 
run  directly  into  the  elevator  there,  and  steamships  go  alongside 
where  they  have  40  feet  of  water.  Grain  is  thus  handled  at  a 
minimum  cost,  for  the  largest  ships  can  be  easily  handled  at  Quebec. 
Somehow  sea  captains  do  not  seem  to  fancy  the  narrow  tortuous 
route  between  Quebec  and  Montreal,  and  the  latter  city  may  find 
the  experience  of  Manchester  repeated  in  her  own  case. 

The  Chicago  drainage  canal  is  one  of  the  triumphs  of  modern 
engineering.  Chicago  derives  her  water  supply  from  Lake  Michigan, 
having  built  a  tunnel  out  under  the  lake  with  an  ''intake"  a  con- 
siderable distance  from  the  shore.  However,  the  amount  of  sewage 
discharged  into  the  lake  was  so  great  that  eventually  it  polluted  the 
water  supply.  Something  had  to  be  done,  and  Chicago,  with  charac- 
teristic daring  and  enterprise,  cut  a  canal  connecting  Lake  Michigan 
with  the  Illinois  river,  34  miles  away.  Into  this  the  drainage  of  the 
city  was  turned  and  water  admitted  to  dilute  it  enough  so  it  would 
not  be  a  menace  to  the  health  of  the  country  through  which  it 


TRANSPORTATION.  237 

passed.  The  whole  is  kept  constantly  in  motion  until  discharged  in 
the  river.  This  disposal  of  the  city's  drainage  frees  the  water  supply 
in  Lake  Michigan  from  any  danger  of  pollution. 

A  Water  Route,  Chicago  to  New  Orleans.  Geologists  say  thai 
before  the  glacial  period  Lake  Michigan  had  a  southern  outlet.  Cer- 
tain it  is  that  at  high  water  its  only  barrier  at  Chicago  is  about  four 
feet  of  rock  and  two  feet  of  gravel,  and  a  ship  canal  connecting  Chi- 
cago with  the  Mississippi  river  has  been  many  times  proposed.  The 
construction  of  the  Chicago  canal  was  begun  September  3,  1892, 
and  an  open  channel  22  feet  deep  and  from  162  feet  to  202  feet 
wide  was  cut  without  locks,  affording  a  continuous  current  its  whole 
length.  The  Des  Plaines  river  was  taken  out  of*  its  course,  a  new 
bed  thirteen  miles  long  built  for  it,  and  the  old  bed  utilized  for 
the  canal.  The  construction  involved  the  removal  of  about  40,000,- 
ooo  cubic  yards  of  material.  The  right  of  way  alone  cost  about 
$2,000,000,  and  the  total  expense  with  interest  charges  January  I, 
1900,  amounted  to  nearly  $34,000,000.  The  canal  affords  passage 
for  ships  of  about  twenty  feet  draft.  Perhaps  no  very  distant  future 
may  see  improvements  in  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi  rivers  that  will 
give  a  route  at  least  twelve  or  fourteen  feet  deep,  affording  direct 
water  communication  between  Chicago  and  New  Orleans,  to  the 
great  advantage  of  both  cities. 

The  busiest  canal  in  the  world  is  one  of  which  probably  the 
least  is  heard.  It  is  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  connecting  Lake  Superior 
with  Lake  Michigan,  and  it  carries  more  than  double  the  tonnage  of 
the  Suez  canal.  It  is  closed  by  ice  during  part  of  the  year.  For  the 
seven  months  ending  October,  1900,  there  had  passed  through 
28, 174  passengers  and  23,090, 1 66  tons  of  freight.  It  is  significant 
that  of  this  four  fifths  is  east  bound  freight,  consisting  chiefly  of 
wheat,  other  grain,  iron  ore,  and  flour.  Mulhall  estimated  the 
wheat  crop  of  the  United  States  in  1895  at  490,000,000  bushels.  In 


238          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

the  seven  months  just  named  there  passed  through  this  canal,  of 
which  half  the  people  on  the  American  continent  have  never  heard, 
33,000,000  bushels  of  wheat. 

The  first  canal  in  the  United  States  was  built  at  South  Had- 
ley,  Mass.,  in  1/93,  to  enable  boats  to  get  around  the  falls  of  the 
Connecticut  river  at  that  point.  On  this  canal  a  boat  ran  into  a 
water-tight  box,  having  gates  at  each  end,  and  floated  on  the  water 
in  the  box,  while  the  whole  affair  was  hauled  by  cables  up  or  down 
an  inclined  way ;  arriving  at  the  other  level  the  gates  opened  and  the 
boat  proceeded  on  its  way. 

The  Erie  canal  has  had  a  greater  effect  on  the  political  history 
of  a  continent  and'  the  movement  of  traffic  and  population  than  any 
similar  work  in  the  world.  Before  it  was  built  the  only  means  of 
transportation  between  the  East  and  West  was  by  horse  and  wagon. 
The  completion  of  the  canal  realized  the  dreams  of  Washington, 
emphasized  the  difference  between  no  transportation  and  good  trans- 
portation, and  exerted  a  marvelous  effect  in  developing  the  country 
and  building  up  its  commerce.  It  was  begun  in  1791  as  a  private 
enterprise  but  was  completed  as  a  state  work  and  opened  November 
4,  1825.  It  was  4  feet  deep,  40  feet  wide  on  the  surface,  and  could 
float  boats  of  80  tons  capacity,  was  352  miles  in  length  and  connected 
Lake  Erie  with  the  Hudson  river.  Its  eastern  end  touches  tide 
water  in  the  Hudson  but  its  western  end  is  573  feet  above  sea  level. 
The  water  of  Lake  Erie  does  not  enter  the  Hudson  because  of 
two  summits  which  intervene.  This  canal  carried  across  the  country, 
rising  and  falling  with  the  surface  of  the  land,  is  built  in  level  sections, 
the  water  in  each  level  being  kept  in  place  by  gates  across  it,  termed 
locks. 

In  the  first  canals  built  by  man  a  portage  had  to  be  made  in 
changing  from  one  level  to  another,  until  a  means  was  devised  for 
moving  loaded  boats.  The  sluice,  the  first  of  these  inventions,  con- 


TRANSPORTATION.  239 

sisted  of  an  inclined  way  down  which  the  water  ran  and  the  boat  was 
allowed  to  slide  down  with  the  water  or  dragged  up  against  it.  On 
the  Grand  canal  in  China  boats  are  transferred  from  one  level  to 
another  by  hauling  them  over  such  an  inclined  plane. 

The  hydraulic  lock,  said  to  have  been  invented  by  Leonardo 
Da  Vinci  about  1481,  exerted  a  profound  influence  on  commerce  and 
made  the  canal  system  really  efficient.  It  consists  of  a  huge  box  of 
masonry  connected  at  different  levels,  closed  at  the  ends  by  water- 
tight gates,  with  valves  in  them  to  allow  the  ingress  and  exit  of 
water.  To  pass  a  boat  downward  the  lower  gates  are  closed,  the  upper 
gates  opened,  and  the  lock  appears  as  a  continuation  of  the  upper 
level;  the  upper  gates  are  then  closed,  the  water  let  out  through  the 
valves  in  the  lower  gates  and,  when  the  water  in  the  lock  falls  until  it 
is  even  with  the  lower  level,  the  lower  gates  are  opened  and  the  boat 
goes  on  its  way.  To  pass  a  boat  upward  the  process  is  reversed. 
This  method  was  used  for  500  years  until  a  lock  built  of  steel  and 
operated  by  compressed  air  was  invented  by  Chauncey  N.  Button  of 
New  York,  who  in  1891  patented  the  Button  Pneumatic  Lock,  a 
ship  elevator  operating  as  a  pneumatic  balance.  In  it  thin  walls  of 
steel  take  the  place  of  heavy  walls  of  masonry  and  frictionless  mobile 
air  is  used  instead  of  ponderous  and  slow  moving  water.  The  locks 
operate  floating  on  air  and  moving  up  and  down,  balancing  one 
another  like  the  pans  of  a  scale.  The  operation  really  is  weighing, 
for  the  motion  is  caused  by  an  excess  of  water  in  the  elevated  lock 
which  depresses  it  and  at  the  same  time  elevates  the  lighter  one.  The 
principle  can  be  understood  by  immersing  a  tumbler  mouth  down- 
ward in  water.  The  air  within  the  tumbler  cannot  escape  because  it 
is  lighter  than  water.  If  we  take  two  tumblers  and  connect  the  air 
space  in  each  by  a  tube  and  prevent  them  from  capsizing,  we  have  a 
model  of  the  pneumatic  lock,  and  if  a  weight  is  placed  on  one  and  it 
is  depressed,  the  air  rushes  through  the  connecting  tube  and  raises 
the  other  tumbler. 


240 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


New  York  state  adopted  these  locks  at  Lockport,  where  one  lift 
of  55^  feet  replaces  5  masonry  locks  and  gains  two  hours  of  time 
for  a  fleet  of  boats.  The  most  famous  is  at  Cohoes,  where  one  lift  of 
140  feet  will  replace  16  locks,  and  save  one  half  day's  time  and  ^  of 
a  cent  per  bushel  on  the  cost  of  moving  grain.  The  channel  in  the 
Mohawk  river  and  the  canal  140  feet  above  will  be  connected  by  a 
gated  approach  in  which  are  two  huge  pits  175  feet  deep,  50  feet 
wide,  and  320  feet  long. 


THE  BUTTON  PNEUMATIC  LOCK. 

Each  pit  contains  a  gigantic  steel  box  or  caisson  having  no  bot- 
tom and  bearing  on  its  top  a  huge  water-tight  tank  long  enough  to 
hold  five  canal  boats.  Each  end  of  the  tank  is  fitted  with  water-tight 
gates  through  which  the  boats  may  pass,  one  end  of  each  tank  making 
perfect  alignment  and  a  water-tight  joint  with  one  of  the  mouths  of 
the  canal.  The  sides  of  the  boxes  are  so  long  that  they  extend  down 
into  the  pit  a  considerable  distance  below  the  water  even  when  the 
lock  is  elevated.  It  is  plain  that  in  each  lock  air  will  be  imprisoned 
like  air  underneath  inverted  tumblers.  Because  its  center  of  gravity 
is  very  high  such  a  lock  tends  to  tip  over,  and  air  being  elastic  and 


TRANSPORTATION. 


241 


affected  by  every  change  in  temperature  the  lock  cannot  be  held 
stationary  on  contained  air.  Mr.  Dutton's  ingenuity  converted  the 
elasticity  of  the  air  from  a  hindrance  into  a  help  and  devised  a  means 
of  giving  locks  a  motion  that  should  be  parallel  and  practically  fric- 
tionless. 

The  elasticity  of  the    air  was  utilized  by  simply  floating  the  low- 


DIAGRAM  SHOWING 

AIR  CONDUIT^  VALVE 

OF  THE    DUTTON    LOCK. 

ered  lock  and  making  it  displace  exactly  its  own  weight  of  water  and 
by  causing  it  to  displace  more  than  its  own  weight  of  water  when 
elevated,  so  that  it  would  be  held  firmly  in  position  against  anchors. 
The  lock  might  be  carrying  a  load  of  thousands  of  tons  either  at  one 
end  or  one  side  and,  if  not  supported,  would  tip  over.  To  avoid  this 
the  locks  move  up  and  down  between  strong  steel  towers  on  each 


242          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

side,  which  prevents  them  from  tipping  over,  and  they  are  made  to 
move  parallel  by  long  horizontal  shafts  carrying  toothed  pinions  that 
fit  into  toothed  racks  on  the  sides  of  the  lock  and  similar  racks  on 
those  of  the  towers.  The  shafts  hang  on  the  teeth  of  the  pinions 
without  other  bearings  and,  as  the  locks  move  up  and  down,  the 
shafts  roll  and  the  pinions  on  them  fit  into  the  racks  on  the  towers 
and  locks  and  the  latter  are  held  horizontal,  no  matter  how  unevenly 
loaded.  Connecting  each  lock  must  be  a  tube  with  an  air-tight  valve 
of  large  size.  That  the  locks  of  Cohoes  might  move  with  a  speed  of 
a  foot  a  second,  an  air-tight  tube  13  feet  in  diameter  was  necessary 
to  connect  them.  To  hold  the  locks  in  any  desired  position  a  valve 
in  this  air  pipe  was  necessary  to  prevent  the  free  discharge  of  the  air. 
A  mechanical  valve  was  not  feasible  but  the  familiar  water  trap, 
used  in  plumbing,  solved  the  difficulty  as  is  shown  in  the  diagram 
of  "Air  Conduit  and  Valve."  The  long  shafts  holding  the  locks 
level  show  clearly  in  the  picture  of  the  Lockport  locks. 

The  locks  operate  in  pairs,  one  balancing  the  other.  If  side  by 
side  they  are  said  to  be  "  parallel,"  but  they  may  be  set  end  to  end, 
when  they  are  said  to  be  "  tandem,"  the  lift  being  divided  between 
two  or  more,  set  one  in  advance  of  the  other  on  different  levels,  this 
arrangement  being  the  cheaper.  The  displacement  of  water  is  varied 
automatically  by  the  lock  according  to  its  position,  when  lowest 
displacing  exactly  its  own  weight  and  floating  like  a  vessel.  When 
elevated  it  displaces  more  than  its  weight  so  that  it  is  thrust  up 
against  its  anchors  and  held  firmly  to  render  its  working  safe.  The 
construction  of  the  locks  may  vary  with  the  need  of  the  soil,  a  cais- 
son working  in  one  huge  pit,  where  the  formation  is  hard  or  in  a 
series  of  wells,  where  the  soil  will  not  sustain  itself.  The  compressed 
air  used  in  operating  the  caissons  is  not  discharged  into  the  atmos- 
phere, so  there  is  no  waste  and  very  little  leakage,  an  air  compressor 
keeping  up  the  supply  of  what  is  unavoidably  lost.  The  system 


TRANSPORTATION.  243 

operates  as  follows :  Suppose  one  lock  to  be  elevated  and  connected 
with  the  upper  level,  the  other  to  be  floating  in  the  lower  level  with 
its  gates  open  so  as  to  be  a  part  of  it.  Boats  in  the  upper  level  to 
be  locked  down  enter  the  elevated  lock,  those  to  be  locked  up  enter 
the  lower  lock.  At  such  times  the  locks  are  held  firmly  in  place 
because  the  water  in  the  "  U"  curved  tube  traps  the  air  so  that  none 
can  pass  from  one  lock  to  the  other.  The  air  under  the  elevated 
lock  is  at  maximum  pressure  and  holds  the  lock  firmly  against  its 
anchors.  Suppose  10  feet  of  water  to  be  within  the  tank  of  the  low- 
ered lock  and  1 1  feet  of  water  within  the  tank  of  the  upper  lock. 
Then  the  gates  are  closed,  the  joint  broken  between  the  elevated 
lock  and  the  corresponding  mouth  in  the  upper  level,  and  the  "U  " 
valve  is  untrapped,  so  that  air  can  flow  from  the  air  chamber  of  one 
lock  to  the  other.  Such  flow  is  from  the  place  of  greater  pressure, 
i.  e.,  the  air  chamber  of  the  elevated  lock,  to  the  place  of  lower  pres- 
sure, i.  e.,  the  air  chamber  of  the  lower  lock,  which  will  ascend  while 
the  other  descends,  just  as  occurs  in  a  scale  when  weighing.  The 
lower  lock  will  move  up  until  it  is  stopped  by  its  anchors  and  the 
other  will  descend  and  come  to  rest,  in  equilibrium,  in  the  lower 
level.  The  "  U  ''  valve  is  now  closed  by  trapping  it  with  water  and 
the  elevated  lock  is  firmly  supported.  The  gates  can  be  opened  and 
the  boats  just  locked  go  their  way.  Thereupon,  the  newly  lowered 
lock  adjusts  itself  automatically  in  the  water  so  as  to  lose  the  excess 
draft  with  which  it  descended;  and  the  newly  elevated  lock  is 
adjusted  relatively  to  the  water  surface  in  the  upper  level  with  which 
it  communicates,  so  as  to  take  in  an  additional  draft  of  water,  say  I 
foot,  and  become  heavier  than  and  ready  to  raise,,  by  its  own  subse- 
quent descent,  the  lock  just  now  depressed  and  lightened  as  afore- 
said. 

The  reduction  in  the  cost  of  transporting  wheat  from  Chicago 
to  New  York   from    1870  to   1893   made  a  difference  of  20  cents  a 


244  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

bushel  in  the  price  of  wheat  at  the  latter  city.  A  ton  of  flour  can 
now  be  carried  from  San  Francisco  to  Boston  for  less  than  it  cost 
one  hundred  years  ago  to  carry  a  barrel  of  salt  from  Syracuse  to 
Albany. 

Every  improvement  in  transportation  has  rendered  the  obtaining 
of  a  livelihood  easier.  Steam  has  brought  Manitoba  nearer  to  Lon- 
don to-day  than  New  York  was  to  Boston  a  hundred  years  ago.  In 
days  when  communication  by  sea  afforded  almost  the  only  means  of 
transportation,  nations  with  a  broken  seacoast,  affording  numerous 
harbors,  enjoyed  many  advantages  and  ranked  highest  in  intelligence. 
Railroads  and  means  of  communication  have  changed  the  whole 
world.  Transportation  affects  every  person  in  the  land,  as  it  affects 
the  price  of  what  is  eaten,  worn,  used,  the  cost,  speed,  comfort,  and 
convenience  of  travel,  social  relations,  and  general  intelligence.  It 
carries  raw  materials  to  the  manufacturer  and  finished  products  from 
the  manufacturer  to  the  consumer.  It  affects  the  number  of  persons 
employed,  the  wages  paid  them,  and  these  in  turn  react  on  other 
lines  of  occupation.  It  enables  the  laborer  to  go  to  points  where  he 
is  at  a  premium  and  to  leave  when  work  becomes  slack,  thus  benefit- 
ing himself  and  the  fellow  laborers  he  leaves  behind  ;  quite  a  marked 
contrast  to  the  days  when  he  could  travel  only  by  tramping  across 
the  country  with  a  bundle  on  a  stick  slung  over  his  shoulder. 
Quick  and  rapid  means  of  communication  and  transportation  helps 
reconcile  people  to  living  farther  from  their  loved  ones.  Heartrend- 
ing as  was  the  Galveston  disaster  the  imagination  cannot  picture  the 
horrors  that  would  have  followed  had  the  sufferers  been  deprived  of 
the  assistance  afforded  by  the  telegraph,  the  railroad,  and  the  steam- 
ship. 

Much  may  be  said  in  defense  of  daring  efforts  of  the  steamship 
and  the  railroad  companies  to  break  records.  Days  and  weeks  are  of 
little  consideration  to  a  savage,  but  every  moment  saved  to  an  intel- 


TRANSPORTATION.  245 

ligent  nation  contributes  to  its  material  wealth,  and  the  hours  of  an 
Edison  may  affect  the  well-being  of  a  nation. 

Relation  of  Transportation  to  War.  Transportation  is  a  potent, 
frequently  the  decisive,  factor  in  all  military  campaigns.  Whatever 
the  transcontinental  lines  may  have  cost  the  United  States,  and 
whatever  scandals  may  have  been  connected  with  them,  he  would 
have  been  a  bold  man  who  dared  deny  that  their  military  value  dur- 
ing the  war  with  Spain  or  the  crisis  at  Peking  had  been  worth  all  they 
have  cost.  Quick  and  easy  means  of  communication  and  transporta- 
tion make  the  people  of  the  world  better  acquainted  with  each  other, 
more  tolerant  and  broad  minded.  Had  the  North  and  the  South 
fifty  years  ago  been  knit  by  railroads,  telegraph  lines,  and  commer- 
cial interests  as  closely  as  to-day,  a  terrible  fratricidal  strife  might 
have  been  averted. 

Railroads  and  Morality.  Railroad  and  steamship  systems  help 
to  raise  the  standard  of  morality.  No  steamship  company  is  likely 
to  employ  as  captain  or  navigating  officer  a  man  known  to  be  ad- 
dicted to  the  use  of  intoxicants.  The  train  dispatcher  who  has 
thousands  of  lives  and  millions  of  dollars  worth  of  property  intrusted 
to  his  charge  must  be  a  man  of  good  habits  and  steady  nerves.  A 
prominent  Western  railroad  has  recently  forbidden  the  use  of  tobacco 
by  a  portion  of  its  employees  when  on  duty.  A  man  known  to  be 
given  to  betting  or  gambling  is  not  considered  the  safest  person  in 
the  world  to  handle  the  money  at  the  ticket  office. 

Great  Saving  by  Means  of  Railroads.  Mulhall  stated  in  1895 
that  the  merchandise  carried  from  day  to  day  on  American  railroads 
was  equal  to  the  total  weight  of  the  entire  population.  It  costs  about 
thirty  cents  a  mile  to  haul  a  ton  of  freight  by  horses  and  wagons 
over  the  average  country  road  at  all  seasons  of  the  year.  During 
the  year  ending  June  30,  1899,  the  average  freight  carried  by  the 
railroads  of  the  United  States  over  one  mile  of  track  was  659,560 


246  THE   MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

tons,  at  an  average  price  of  .724  of  a  cent  per  ton  mile.  In  other 
words,  each  mile  of  railroad  saved  to  the  nation,  over  the  expense  of 
hauling  by  horses,  more  than  $190,000.  The  railroads  of  the  United 
States  carry  more  freight  than  those  of  any  other  country,  but  even 
in  Germany  it  is  estimated  that  each  mile  of  railroad  causes  a  yearly 
saving  of  about  $31,000  to  the  public. 

Government  control  of  railroads  is  often  advocated.  It  is  urged 
that  such  control  would  prevent  the  construction  of  all  unnecessary 
lines  and  the  destructive  effects  of  railroad  wars.  True  it  is  that 
about  two  thirds  of  the  railroads  of  the  United  States  are  unable  to 
pay  dividends,  and  such  roads  are  a  loss  to  their  investors.  But  the 
United  States  has  never  to  any  great  extent  subsidized  its  railroad 
and  steamship  lines  and  other  nations  do  this  heavily.  Perhaps  the 
loss  to  investors  is  no  greater  than  the  subsidies  other  nations  are  in 
the  habit  of  paying,  and  if  that  is  true,  a  small  group  of  investors 
have  borne  the  burden  of  the  road,  instead  of  its  being  carried  as  a 
general  tax  upon  the  people  at  large  in  the  form  of  a  subsidy.  It 
has  yet  to  be  conclusively  demonstrated  that  government  control  of 
railroads  is  desirable.  Canada  began  the  construction  of  the  Cana- 
dian Pacific  railroad  as  a  public  work,  but  was  later  glad  to  turn  it 
over  to  private  companies,  and  provincial  and  municipal  aid  paid 
about  20  per  cent,  of  the  cost  of  its  construction.  The  success  of 
government  administration  varies  with  different  countries.  The  ad- 
ministration of  some  has  been  about  as  bad  as  it  could  be.  Of  those 
that  have  tried  it  Germany  seems  the  only  one  that  is  fairly  success- 
ful, and  Germany  as  a  nation  is  peculiarly  well  adapted  to  exercise 
governmental  supervision.  Yet  even  there,  where  the  results  in 
some  respects  are  extremely  good,  the  roads  as  a  whole  are  not  equal 
to  anything  like  the  American  standard  of  efficiency,  speed,  amount 
of  train  service,  or  rapidity  of  development.  In  spite  of  all  the 
1  'water"  that  is  popularly  supposed  to  exist  in  the  stock  of  Ameri- 


TRANSPORTATION.  247 

can    railroads    their    capitalization    is    less    per   mile    than    those    of 
Europe. 

It  is  by  no  means  certain,  and  perhaps  not  probable,  that  govern- 
mental selection  would  secure  better  men  for  railroad  management 
than  are  now  secured,  for  favoritism  plays  little  part  in  the  strenu- 
ous competition  of  modern  companies,  and  it  is  pretty  certain  that 
any  man  who  attains  and  maintains  his  position  at  the  head  of  a 
great  corporation  has  at  least  some  of  the  qualities  of  mind  required, 
although  his  moral  fitness  may  not  be  so  certain. 

Relief  for  the  Terrible  Congestion  of  the  City.  Rapid  and  cheap 
transportation  will  be  one  of  the  most  powerful  factors  in  overcom- 
ing the  terrible  evil  of  the  crowded  tenement  house  system  of  large 
cities.  Some  portions  of  New  York  city  are  the  most  thickly  popu- 
lated in  the  world.  Numerous  tenement  house  districts  average  from 
900  to  1000  people  per  acre,  and  one  block  of  tenements,  bounded 
by  6ist  and  626.  Streets  and  loth  and  nth  Avenues,  is  said  to  con- 
tain 2639  rooms,  more  than  one  half  of  which  have  no  opening  into 
the  outer  air.  An  investigating  committee  reported  that  in  many 
cases  there  were  from  ten  to  twelve  persons  living  in  one  room. 
Such  a  condition  of  affairs  is  not  only  prejudicial  to  the  morals  of  the 
community  but  a  menace  to  the  general  health,  for  contagious  dis- 
eases breaking  out  in  such  locations  spread  with  frightful  rapidity 
and  virulence.  It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  with  rapid  transit 
such  people  would  go  outside  the  city  to  live.  Strange  to  say,  they 
are  the  very  last  to  move,  but  some  not  so  low  down  in  the  scale 
would  go  outside  to  better  quarters,  leaving  a  chance  for  others  to 
move  into  the  places  vacated  and  so  help  relieve  the  pressure  on  the 
"submerged"  districts. 

Effect  on  Immigration  and  Settlement.  The  development  of 
steamship  and  railroad  lines  has  alone  made  possible  the  settlement 
of  a  large  portion  of  the  American  continent.  British  Columbia  rec- 


248          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

ognized  the  importance  of  communication  with  the  outside  world 
when  she  made  her  coming  into  the  Confederation  dependent  upon 
the  building  of  a  railroad.  To  stimulate  the  development  of  her  vast 
fields  in  Siberia,  Russia  is  offering  to  carry  settlers  there  4000  miles 
for  $3.62;  while  to  encourage  the  development  of  its  western  coun- 
try, the  United  States  so  long  as  its  government  land  lasted,  gave 
farms  to  actual  settlers.  It  is  estimated  that  prior  to  1820,  less  than 
250,000  emigrants  came  to  the  United  States.  For  the  ten  years 
ending  1830,  the  average  of  emigration  was  14,343  per  year.  From 
1830  to  1840  transportation  systems  began  to  feel  the  stimulus  of 
the  railroad  and  the  steamship,  and  the  length  of  time  and  cost  of 
passage  was  so  greatly  reduced  for  that  decade  that  the  average  was 
59,912  per  year.  As  rates  cheapened  it  bounded  to  171,325  for 
1840  to  1850;  259,821  from  1850  to  1860;  231,482,  1860  to  1870, 
the  Civil  War  period  ;  281,229,  1870  to  1880;  524,661,  1880  to  1890. 
The  emigrants  have  developed  the  farm  lands  of  the  West,  built 
canals  and  railroads,  brought  coal  and  iron  from  the  mines,  and  by 
such  services  added  to  the  material  wealth  and  prosperity  of  the 
country. 

The  Dominion  of  Canada  gives  much  attention  to  the  subject  of 
colonization,  and  when  in  1870  the  great  Northwest,  until  then  the 
domain  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  passed  into  the  possession  of 
the  Canadian  government  the  colonization  of  the  great  tract  was 
deemed  of  prime  importance  and  fostered  so  carefully  that  within 
ten  years  the  population  has  doubled.  The  government  owns  most 
of  the  unoccupied  land  there,  though  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  re- 
tained one  twentieth  at  the  time  of  the  transfer,  and  the  Canadian 
Pacific  railroad  received  25,000,000  acres  as  one  of  its  bonuses.  One 
of  the  best  proofs  of  the  dependence  of  the  country  upon  the  rail- 
road is  that  all  along  the  line  of  any  new  road  its  land  is  now  taken 
up  by  settlers  ahead  of  the  construction  of  the  road. 


TRANSPORTATION.  249 

An  emigrant  from  Europe  taking  steerage  passage  can  be  landed 
in  Montreal  for  from  $25  to  $28.  From  there  he  can  go  in  a  colon- 
ists' sleeping  car  to  Winnipeg  for  $22.50  and  have  his  freight  taken 
with  him  at  special  rate  or  be  given  a  pass  if  he  brings  live  stock. 
As  a  further  incentive  the  Canadian  Pacific  railroad  will  refund  his 
fare  if  he  buys  land  of  them.  At  harvest  time  in  the  Northwest, 
harvest  hands  can  go  from  Montreal  to  Winnipeg  and  return  for  $28, 
a  trip  of  1424  miles  each  way,  and  each  season  thousands  of  men 
from  Ontario  and  Quebec  make  that  trip  and  assist  in  gathering  the 
wheat  crop. 

Many  picturesque  features  appear  in  connection  with  the  his- 
-tory  of  Canadian  colonization.  Longfellow  has  immortalized  one, 
and  Charles  G.  D.  Roberts,  in  his  <(  Sister  to  Evangeline,"  has  inter- 
estingly depicted  another.  The  United  Empire  Loyalists,  forced  by 
the  result  of  the  Revolution  to  leave  the  United  States,  present  a 
striking  picture  and  during  the  period  when  slavery  existed  in  the 
Great  Republic  a  colored  refugee  who  often  traveled  alone  by  night 
with  only  the  pole  star  as  a  guide,  found  in  Canada  a  haven  of  refuge. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  incidents  in  the  history  of  these  move- 
ments is  that  of  the  Mennonites  who  came  from  Russia  in  1874  to 
escape  religious  persecution  at  home.  They  borrowed  $96,400  from 
the  government  for  expenses  and  were  so  industrious  and  well  es- 
tablished that  by  1892  they  had  paid  it  all  back,  principal  and  inter- 
est. 

The  great  Klondike  stampede  in  1897-98  took  place  in  spite  of 
all  the  difficulties  of  transportation,  but  resulted  in  the  building  of 
the  White  Pass  and  Yukon  River  railroad,  from  Skagway  to  the 
WThite  Horse  Rapids,  a  distance  of  112  miles.  In  going  a  distance 
of  only  21  miles  this  road  makes  a  climb  of  2825  feet  and  reaches  the 
summit  of  the  White  Pass,  a  performance  that  is  justly  considered 
one  of  the  noteworthy  feats  of  engineering. 


250 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


In  view  of  what  the  railroads  and  canals  have  done  for  Canada  it 
is  very  interesting  to  note  that  in  1790  Adpm  Lymburner,  sent  as  a 
delegate  by  the  Canadian  people  to  England,  stated  that  the  lands 
of  western  Ontario  would  never  be  settled  because  the  Niagara 
Falls  offered  an  insurmountable  obstacle  to  their  commercial  develop- 
ment. 


TRAFFIC  ON  THE  CANAL. 


ELECTRICITY. 


Its  Relation  to  Light  —  Its  Mystery  —  Loadstone — Leyden  Jar — Franklin;  his  Kite 
and  Lightning  Rod  —  Galvani  —  Volta  —  Frictional  Electricity — Static  Electricity  — 
Electricity  of  Chemical  Action  —  Electricity  of  Heat  —  Electricity  of  Magnetism  —  Mari- 
ner's Compass — Discoverers  and  Discoveries  That  Made  Possible  the  Dynamo  —  Electric 
Motors  —  Measures  of  Electricity:  Ampere,  Ohm,  Watt,  Volt  —  Electric  Railroads  —  Arc 
Light  —  Search  Light — Incandescent  Lamp  and  its  Inventors  —  Electric  Heat  —  Electric 
Welding -^Economy  of  the  Firefly — Electric  Furnace  —  Carborundum  —  Aluminum  — 
Calcium  Carbide  —  Electroplating  —  How  Storage  Batteries  Save  Power  —  Practical  Appli- 
cations of  Electricity. 


THOUSANDS  of  years  ago  it  was  known 
that  if  a  piece  of  amber  were  rubbed 
it  would  attract  light  substances,  and  for 
want  of  a  better  explanation  of  the  mys- 
tery it  was  considered  to  have  a  "soul." 
Even  the  luxuriant  imagination  of  the 
Orient  could  conceive  of  nothing  more 
marvelous  than  the  wonders  performed 
by  the  genie  that  Aladdin  summoned  by 
rubbing  his  lamp,  but  the  actual  achieve- 
ments of  the  scientists  have  exceeded  the 
wildest  flights  of  the  imagination  of  the 

Oriental  story-teller,  for  the  magic  of  the  genie  of  the  lamp  pales 
into  insignificance  beside  the  work  performed  by  the  "soul"  of 
the  amber.  The  latter  with  a  strength  that  is  tireless  and  a  speed 
that  is  instantaneous  carries  messages  over  the  land  and  under 
the  sea,  furnishes  a  light  rivaling  that  of  the  sun  and  a  heat  that 
renders  that  of  a  coal  furnace  cool  by  comparison,  looks  through 
materials  opaque  to  the  human  eye  and  pictures  substances  lying 
within,  records  the  inflections  of  the  human  voice  and  reproduces 
them  at  the  pleasure  of  the  master  it  serves. 


THOMAS  A.  EDISON. 


252          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

Space  will  permit  but  the  briefest  review  of  this  invisible  force, 
our  acquaintance  with  which  is  limited  to  a  few  of  its  manifestations. 
The  subject  of  electricity  has  been  needlessly  surrounded  with  mys- 
tery, aruLit  is  unfortunate  that  many  writers  in  attempting  to  define 
it  have  employed  obscure  language  for  the  purpose  of  concealing  a 
lack  of  knowledge  which  they  were  not  honest  enough  to  admit. 

A  study  of  the  phenomena  of  light  and  color  practically  com- 
pels a  belief  in  the  existence  of  an  "ether"  vastly  more  subtle  than 
air,  filling  all  space,  and  whose  vibrations  convey  the  sensation  of  light. 
The  investigations  of  numerous  scientists,  but  more  especially  those 
of  Faraday,  Maxwell,  and  Hertz,  have  shown  that  light  and  elec- 
tricity possess  many  properties  in  common,  and  Maxwell  has  main- 
tained that  "light  is  a  purely  electrical  phenomenon."  He  has 
assumed  that  the  ether  of  light  is  identical  with  the  ether  of  electric- 
ity and  that  waves  of  each  travel  with  about  the  same  velocity,  186,- 
ooo  miles  per  second.  The  investigations  of  Hertz  and  many  others 
are  continually  piling  up  evidence  in  support  of  Maxwell's  theory. 
For  Hertz  has  actually  found  the  waves  that  Maxwell  assumed  to  be 
present  and  has  proved  that  if  the  right  materials  are  used  to  pro- 
duce the  effects  they  will  obey  the  laws  of  the  waves  of  light  govern- 
ing reflection,  refraction,  and  interference.  It  was  but  a  step  from 
the  discovery  of  the  Hertzian  waves  to  the  wireless  telegraphy  of 
Marconi.  For  all  the  purposes  of  this  sketch  electricity  will  be  con- 
sidered as  energy  which  may  appear  in  many  guises. 

Probably  no  other  branch  of  science  employs  expressions  with 
meanings  so  contradictory  to  the  principles  they  are  used  to  describe. 
The  terms  fluid,  current,  flow,  charge,  discharge,  and  numerous 
others  give  a  clew  to  the  various  ideas  once  held  concerning  this 
strange  force.  The  work  of  some  of  the  pioneers  in  electrical  dis- 
covery will  be  briefly  reviewed  and  some  of  the  applications  of  the 
force  for  commercial  purposes  described. 


ELECTRICITY.  253 

The  Earliest  Students  of  Electricity.  Thales  of  Miletus,  writ- 
ing 600  B.C.,  mentions  the  magnetic  property  of  amber,  and  Theo- 
phrastus,  300  B.C.,  discovered  the  same  property  in  the  tourmaline, 
but  it  was  not  until  Dr.  Gilbert,  physician  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  made 
extended  experiments  and  published  his  results  that  the  study  of 
electrical  phenomena  was  systematically  developed.  It  is  to  Gilbert 
that  we  owe  the  word  "electricity,"  and  he  can  be  called  the  creator 
of  the  science  of  electricity  and  magnetism.  Gilbert  made  a  vast 
number  of  experiments  and  divided  all  bodies  into  two  classes;  those 
which  he  could  electrify  by  friction,  and  those  which  he  could  not 
electrify  by  friction.  To  the  first  class  he  gave  the  name  "elec- 
trics "  because  they  exhibited  the  peculiar  power  of  amber,  taking 
the  Greek  name  of  that  substance  to  designate  a  phenomenon  it 
showed.  Gilbert  studied  the  phenomenon  of  magnetism  at  the  same 
time  and  showed  that  opposite  poles  of  magnetic  needles  attract  each 
other.  He  applied  to  the  neutral  middle  space  the  term  "  equator," 
which  we  use  to-day.  He  recorded  all  his  observations  and  issued 
them  in  book  form.  Improvements  in  the  art  of  printing  made  the 
spread  of  knowledge  easier  and  the  publication  of  Gilbert's  book  gave 
considerable  impetus  to  the  study  of  electricity.  Many  investigators 
in  different  lands  gathered  new  facts  concerning  the  science  and  deep 
interest  was  taken  in  it,  for  the  age  had  hardly  given  up  searching 
for  the  "  philosopher's  stone  "  or  the  "  fountain  of  youth." 

The  loadstone,  an  oxide  of  iron  (Fe3O4)  known  as  magnetite, 
was  the  original  source  of  magnetism  prior  to  1820.  The  derivation 
of  the  name  has  been  variously  ascribed  to  the  city  of  Magnesia  in 
Asia  Minor,  where  it  is  found,  or  from  Magnus,  a  Greek  shepherd  on 
Mount  Ida,  who  found  the  iron  on  his  crook  attracted  by  a  mass  of 
the  ore.  The  loadstone  exhibits  the  quality  of  magnetism  but  does 
not  always  possess  polarity  though  a  piece  of  steel  rubbed  upon  it 
will  exhibit  both  magnetism  and  polarity.  It  was  known  to  the 


254          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

ancients  and  is  referred  to  in  the  writings  of  Plato,  Euripides,  Aris- 
totle, Pliny,  and  others. 

Magnetite  is  one  of  the  richest  of  the  iron  ores,  containing  about 
72.417  per  cent,  pure  iron,  and  is  widely  distributed,  being  substan- 
tially the  only  ore  of  Sweden  and  Norway.  It  constitutes  the  prin- 
cipal part  of  the  iron  ore  of  Canada  and  is  widely  distributed  in  the 
United  States.  The  secret  of  its  magnetism  is  not  known  but  has 
been  ascribed  to  the  effect  of  the  "  earth  currents"  of  electricity. 

The  Leyden  jar,  invented  about  1745,  marked  the  next  impor- 
tant gain.  It  seems  certain  that  at  least  three  and  probably  more 
investigators,  working  independently,  made  the  discovery  at  about 
the  same  time,  but  it  has  come  to  be  known  by  the  name  of  the  city 
where  it  was  most  widely  used  at  first.  The  device  usually  consists 
of  a  glass  jar  covered  with  tin  foil  inside  and  out  to  within  a  short 
distance  of  the  top.  "  The  mouth  is  generally  closed  by  a  disc  of  dry 
wood  through  which  passes  a  wire  to  the  inner  coating.  The  outer 
end  of  the  wire  usually  terminates  in  a  small  metallic  ball.  Its 
essential  feature  is  that  it  consists  of  two  conducting  surfaces  sepa- 
rated by  a  nonconductor."*  The  jar  is  charged  by  connecting  one 
surface  with  the  earth  and  the  other  with  an  electric  current.  Sir 
William  Watson  added  the  outer  metal  coating  and  was  able  to  draw 
from  his  jar  a  spark  sufficient  to  fire  gunpowder  and  to  send  an  elec- 
tric current  through  12,000  feet  of  wire.  So  far  as  any  instruments 
at  that  time  would  show,  the  velocity  of  the  current  through  the 
wire  was  so  high  as  to  appear  instantaneous. 

Benjamin  Franklin  about  1747  became  interested  in  electricity 
through  Peter  Collinson  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  who  sent 
him  a  Leyden  jar.  Franklin  took  up  the  subject  with  enthusiasm 
and  communicated  the  results  of  his  work  to  Mr.  Collinson,  who 
read  his  letters  from  time  to  time  to  the  Royal  Society.  Franklin's 

*Mendenhall,  *   . 


ELECTRICITY.  255 

work  was  not  appreciated  there,  and  it  was  not  until  Buffon,  the 
celebrated  French  naturalist,  caused  a  French  translation  of  his  let- 
ters to  be  made  that  their  merit  was  discovered  and  acknowledged. 
Franklin's  note  book  of  November  7,  1749,  says:— 

"Electrical  fluid  agrees  with  lightning  in  these  particulars:  i. 
Giving  light.  2.  Color  of  the  light.  3.  Crooked  direction.  4. 
Swift  motion.  5.  Being  conducted  by  metals.  6.  Crack  or  noise 
in  exploding.  7.  Subsisting  in  water  or  ice.  8.  Rending  bodies  it 
passes  through.  9.  Destroying  animals.  10.  Melting  metals,  n. 
Firing  inflammable  substances.  12.  Sulphurous  smell.  The  elec- 
tric fluid  is  attracted  by  points, —  we  do  not  know  whether  this 
property  is  in  lightning.  But  since  they  agree  in  all  the  particulars 
wherein  we  can  already  compare  them,  is  it  not  probable  they  agree 
likewise  in  this?  Let  the  experiment  be  made"* 

Franklin's  Kite  and  the  Lightning  Rod.  When  his  letters  were 
translated  the  suggestions  were  acted  upon  in  France  and  Monsieur 
D'Alibard  appears  to  have  first  drawn  electricity  from  the  clouds 
May  10,  1752.  Franklin  himself  performed  his  famous  experiments 
with  the  kite  in  June,  1752,  and  reported  it  in  a  letter  dated 
October  19,  1752.  His  discovery  of  the  identity  of  lightning  and 
electricity  gave  him  a  wide  reputation.  He  made  practical  use  of 
his  discovery  in  the  lightning  rod,  which  was  apparently  the  first 
practical  application  of  electricity  to  the  service  of  man. 

Galvani's  Experiments.  .Galvani,  professor  of  anatomy  in  the 
Italian  College  at  Bologna,  made  about  1790  his  famous  experiments 
with  frogs'  legs.  It  was  discovered  that  the  hind  legs  of  frogs,  di- 
vested of  their  skins  and  hung  on  copper  hooks,  when  swung  by  the 
wind  and  brought  in  contact  with  an  iron  railing  contracted  as 
though  the  muscles  were  alive.  The  cause  was  correctly  ascribed  .to 
electricity  but  the  strangest  ideas  prevailed  concerning  it.  Galvani 

*  Mendenhall. 


256  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

believed  that  the  electricity  was  contained  within  the  muscles  and 
nerves  of  the  animal  itself  and  that  the  metals  simply  furnished  con- 
ductors for  it,  and  from  this  theory  arose  the  term  "animal  elec- 
tricity." Many  physiologists  adopted  his  idea  enthusiastically  and 
fondly  dreamed  that  the  mystery  of  life  was  about  to  be  solved,  and 
miraculous  curative  powers  were  ascribed  to  it.  "  Seductive  hypoth- 
eses were  built  up  which  dazzled  the  mind  with  words  devoid  of 
sense,  but  vanished  as  soon  as  they  were  tested  by  reason."  "  It 
would  seem  that  without  any  loss  of  dignity  the  present  might  learn 
from  the  mistakes  of  the  past  and  transmute  its  foolishness  into  wis- 
dom. The  advertising  columns  of  the  periodicals  of  the  present 
time  furnish  incontestable  evidence,  however,  of  the  fact  that  the 
people  of  to-day  welcome  mystery  and  deception,  if  not  recognized 
fraud,  just  as  readily  and  with  as  much  self-satisfaction  as  did  their 
ancestors  of  one  hundred  years  ago."  * 

Alexander  Volta,  professor  of  mathematics  in  the  University  of 
Pavia,  Italy,  was  a  contemporary  of  Galvani  and  also  a  student  of 
electricity.  He  did  not  accept  Galvani's  theory  and  soon  produced 
a  battery  called  after  him  the  voltaic  pile.  This  he  described  in  a 
letter  to  Sir  Joseph  Banks  in  the  year  1800  and  produced  the  most 
profound  sensation  in  scientific  circles.  His  battery  was  made  of 
discs  of  copper  and  zinc  separated  by  layers  of  paper  or  cloth  mois- 
tened with  salt  .and  water,  and  gave  at  once  a  source  from  which 
electricity  could  be  obtained  at  any  time  when  wanted.  Prior  to 
this  the  Leyden  jar  had  been  the  only  means  of  holding  electricity 
in  reserve.  The  voltaic  pile  introduced  a  new  era  into  electrical 
work,  for  hitherto  electricity  had  to  be  studied  as  it  was  suddenly 
discharged  and  the  greatest  amount  that  could  be  had  for  such  pur- 
poses was  limited  by  the  capacity  of  the  Leyden  jar,  while  Volta's 
battery  made  a  continuous  current  readily  available  and  greatly  in- 

*  Mendenhall. 


ELECTRICITY.  257 

creased  the  opportunity  for  investigation.  Volta  afterward  changed 
his  battery  by  taking  the  plates  and  putting  them  in  cups  of  water 
and  connecting  the  tops  by  wires,  giving  it  the  form  which  it  prac- 
tically retains  to-day.  With  the  general  use  of  the  voltaic  battery 
electrical  progress  was  rapid  and  resulted  in  brilliant  discoveries. 
With  it  Messrs.  Nicholson  and  Carlisle  in  1800  decomposed  water, 
proved  it  to  be  composed  of  the  two  gases,  hydrogen  and  oxygen, 
and  laid  the  basis  of  electro-chemistry. 

Sir  Humphry  Davy  (1778-1829)  also  quickly  entered  the  field 
with  Volta's  battery,  and  by  its  aid  decomposed  the  fixed  alkalies, 
and  discovered  numerous  new  substances,  among  them  potassium. 
He  was  considered  to  have  made  the  most  important  contributions 
to  science  since  the  time  of  Isaac  Newton,  and  was  knighted  for  his 
discoveries. 

The  arc  light  was  foreshadowed  in  1802  by  Sir  Humphry  Davy 
and  successfully  demonstrated  by  him  in  1809.  Davy's  discoveries 
had  aroused  such  enthusiasm  in  London  that  a  voltaic  battery  of 
2000  cells  containing  128,000  square  inches  of  surface  immersed  in  a 
mixture  of  water,  nitric  and  sulphuric  acids  was  put  at  his  disposal. 
He  connected  the  poles  with  pieces  of  charcoal  and  describes  his 
experiment  as  follows:  "  When  pieces  of  charcoal  about  an  inch  long 
and  one  sixth  of  an  inch  in  diameter  were  brought  near  each  other 
(within  the  thirtieth  or  fortieth  of  an  inch),  a  bright  spark  was 
produced,  and  more  than  half  the  volume  of  the  charcoal  became 
ignited  to  whiteness;  and,  by  withdrawing  the  points  from  each 
other,  a  constant  discharge  took  place  through  the  heated  air,  in  a 
space  equal  to  at  least  four  inches,  producing  a  most  brilliant  ascend- 
ing arch  of  light,  broad  and  conical  in  form,  in  the  middle.  When 
any  substance  was  introduced  into  this  arch,  it  instantly  became 
ignited;  platina  melted  as  readily  in  it  as  wax  in  a  common  candle; 
quartz,  the  sapphire,  magnesia,  lime,  all  entered  into  fusion;  frag- 


258          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

ments  of  diamond  and  points  of  charcoal  and  plumbago  rapidly  dis- 
appeared and  seemed  to  evaporate  in  it."  *  Davy  had  produced  an 
electric  light  but  the  large  batteries  necessary  for  its  production  were 
expensive  and  irregular  in  their  action,  and  the  lighting  problem  was 
forced  to  wait  for  Faraday's  discovery  of  electro-magnetic  induction 
and  the  commercial  development  of  the  dynamo.  The  light  was 
first  termed  "arch  light"  because  of  the  brilliant  ascending  arch  of 
light,  and  has  since  come  to  be  known  as  "  arc  light." 

The  kinship  of  magnetism  and  electricity  was  generally  recog- 
nized prior  to  1820,  but  it  remained  for  Hans  Christian  Oersted 
(1777—1851),  a  Dane,  and  the  son  of  an  apothecary  in  a  little  coun- 
try village  of  less  than  1000  inhabitants,  to  demonstrate  their  close 
relationship.  The  boy  wished  to  enter  the  ministry,  but  somewhat 
to  his  disappointment  though  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  science,  his 
father  put  him  at  work  in  his  pharmacy  when  twelve  years  old  The 
mysteries  of  that  simple  laboratory  had  a  wonderful  fascination  for 
him,  and  he  applied  himself  with  such  zeal  to  obtaining  an  education 
that  when  twenty-two  years  of  age  he  was  given  the  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Philosophy  by  Copenhagen  University.  He  later  traveled  through 
Europe  and  on  his  return  was  made  professor  of  physics  at  his  alma 
mater.  Davy,  Faraday,  Oersted,  and  many  others  believed  that  the 
forces  of  nature  were  much  more  simple  and  closely  related -than 
their  numerous  manifestations  would  at  first  seem  to  indicate  and 
that  electricity  and  magnetism  would  be  shown  some  day  to  be  re- 
lated. 

Oersted's  Discovery.  In  the  winter  of  1819-20,  while  Oersted 
was  lecturing  before  his  class,  a  new  idea  flashed  upon  him.  He  de- 
termined to  work  out  the  idea  before  the  class  and  explained  to  them 
what  he  was  about  to  do.  Among  the  apparatus  before  him  was  a 
powerful  battery  and  a  suspended  magnetic  needle.  Taking  the 

*  Mendenhall. 


ELECTRICITY.  259 

poles  of  the  battery  he  joined  them  and  placed  the  wire  parallel  with 
and  over  the  needle.  Instantly  the  needle  swung  out  of  its  position 
and  one  of  the  most  serviceable  discoveries  of  modern  science  was  re- 
vealed. Oersted  entered  into  his  experimental  work  extensively  and 
published  the  result  within  a  few  months.  Brilliant  and  dramatic  as 
had  been  his  discovery  it  was  destined  to  perform  greater  marvels  in 
the  hands  of  a  contemporary. 

Andre  Marie  Ampere  (1775-1836),  a  French  scientist,  first 
learned  September  11,  1820,  that  Oersted  had  deflected  the  magnetic 
needle  by  a  current  of  electricity.  The  force  of  the  discovery  ap- 
pealed to  him  at  once,  and  with  astonishing  ability  he  grasped  the 
subject  and  within  a  week  had  demonstrated  and  reduced  to  formulas 
the  fundamental  laws  underlying  electro-dynamics.  Rarely  has  so 
short  a  time  been  prolific  of  discoveries  so  beneficial  to  mankind,  and 
Ampere  stamped  his  name  indelibly  'on  electrical  science,  for  the  unit 
that  measures  the  current  is  called  after  him.  Ampere  proved  that 
the  current  could  produce  magnetic  effects  without  a  magnet  and 
that  currents  flowing  through  parallel  wires  in  the  same  direction 
attracted  each  other,  and  finally  he  reduced  it  all  to  mathematics. 
The  work  of  Oersted  and  Ampere  made  possible  the  telegraph  and 
the  telephone.  It  in  fact  laid  the  greater  part  of  the  foundation 
upon  which  the  structure  of  modern  electricity  has  been  reared. 

Arago  (1786-1853),  a  French  scientist,  and  Sir  Humphry  Davy 
each  independently  discovered  in  1820  that  a  copper  wire  through 
which  a  current  of  electricity  is  passing  will  attract  to  it  iron  filings 
as  though  it  were  magnetic.  Arago  surrounded  a  glass  tube  with  a 
coil  of  wire,  put  bits  of  steel  inside,  passed  a  current  through  the 
coil,  and  found  that  the  steel  inside  the  tube  was  magnetized.  Oer- 
sted had  discovered  that  the  current  of  electricity  would  influence 
magnetism  but  Arago  demonstrated  by  his  coil  and  glass  tube  that 
electricity  would  produce  magnetism. 


26O          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

The  loadstone  was  the  original  source  of  magnetism  prior  to 
1820.  To  make  a  magnet  it  was  necessary  that  the  steel  be  rubbed 
upon  a  loadstone  or  upon  a  magnet.  Magnetism  could  be  transferred 
from  one  to  another  without  loss  just  as  one  torch  may  be  lighted  by 
the  flame  of  another.  The  researches  of  Oersted,  Ampere,  and  Arago 
showred  that  a  bar  of  steel  could  be  made  a  magnet  by  passing  a  cur- 
rent of  electricity  through  it,  and  "the  loadstone  as  a  primary  source 
of  magnetism  was  dethroned  and  a  cell  of  Volta  crowned  in  its 
stead." 

Sturgeon,  an  English  electrician,  a  little  later  substituted  soft 
iron  for  steel,  passed  a  coil  of  wire  around  it,  sent  an  electric  current 
through  the  coil  and  found  that  the  iron  was  a  magnet  as  long  as  the 
current  of  electricity  kept  up,  but  that  it  lasted  only  while  the  cur- 
rent was  flowing.  The  soft  iron  and  the  electric  current  gave  a 
more  powerful  magnet  than  that  of  steel,  and,  more  important  yet, 
gave  one  that  could  be  instantly  made  magnetic  or  non-magnetic. 

Joseph  Henry  of  Albany,  later  of  Princeton  and  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  improved  upon  Sturgeon's  magnet  by  winding  it  with 
many  coils  of  wire  and  produced  one  weighing  sixty  pounds  that  was 
able  to  sustain  a  weight  of  more  than  a  ton.  Sturgeon  varnished 
the  iron  and  wound  a  naked  wire  around  it,  the  varnish  acting  as  an 
insulator,  Henry  improved  the  insulation  by  covering  his  wire  with 
silk. 

The  Galvanic  multiplier  was  discovered  by  Schweigger  (born 
1830),  a  German  scientist.  Working  on  Oersted's  experiment  he 
carried  the  wire  over  the  needle,  bent  it,  and  brought  it  back  under 
the  needle  and  doubled  the  effect  of  the  current,  and  found  he  could 
increase  its  effect  each  time  he  made  a  loop.  It  followed  that  a  wire 
through  which  a  very  feeble  current  passed  might  be  bent  into 
enough  loops  so  the  magnetic  needle  would  be  influenced  by  it  and 
in  this  way  it  became  possible  to  measure  currents  that  before  defied 


ELECTRICITY.  26l 

all  electrical  instruments.  Schweigger's  discovery  applied  to  the 
thermo-battery  will  measure  the  heat  of  a  star.  It  took  electricity 
out  of  the  realm  of  guesswork  and  conducted  it  with  something  like 
mathematical  accuracy.  The  rapid  progress  the  science  has  made  is 
in  part  due  to  such  exactness,  for  it  is  evident  that  even  workers 
with  tools  would  be  badly  handicapped  if  compelled  to  use  measures 
and  scales  that  were  crude  and  inaccurate,  then  how  much  more  nec- 
essary that  workers  in  electrical  science  employ  exact  measures  of 
that  strange  force.  It  is  Galvani's  discovery  of  the  "  new  electric- 
ity," Volta's  battery  that  gave  the  means  of  generating  it,  Oersted's 
instrument  that  showed  its  influence  upon  the  magnetic  needle,  and 
Faraday's  discovery  that  led  to  the  development  of  the  dynamo,  that 
have  rendered  possible  the  greater  part  of  the  practical  applications 
of  electricity. 

Michael  Faraday  (1791-1867)  was  the  son  of  a  blacksmith  and 
had  but  limited  educational  advantages.  Apprenticed  to  a  book- 
binder at  the  age  of  thirteen,  he  made  the  most  of  the  opportunities 
work  afforded  him,  and  is  said  to  have  become  interested  in  elec- 
tricity on  reading  an  article  upon  it  in  an  encyclopedia  given  him  to 
bind.  Seeing  the  boy's  interest  in  such  things,  one  of  his  father's 
customers  in  1812  gave  him  tickets  to  four  lectures  on  chemistry 
delivered  by  Sir  Humphry  Davy.  He  made  careful  notes  of  the 
lectures  and  sent  them  to  Davy  with  the  request  that  he  be  given 
some  employment  in  the  Institution.  Davy  returned  the  notes  and 
praised  his  work,  but  advised  him  to  stick  to  his  bookbinding  and 
promised  him  the  patronage  of  the  Institution,  his  own,  and  that  of 
his  friends  that  he  could  influence.  Later,  needing  assistance,  he 
remembered  Faraday  and  employed  him  temporarily.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that  all  Faraday  lacked  was  a  chance,  and  that  the 
temporary  employment  became  permanent,  and  Davy  afterward  said 
that  his  greatest  claim  to  the  gratitude  of  posterity  was  that  he  had 


262  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

11  discovered  'Mike'  Faraday."  In  1827  he  succeeded  to  Davy's 
chair  of  chemistry  in  the  Royal  Institution.  Electricity  had  a  great 
fascination  for  him  and  after  years  of  study  he  began  on  August  29, 
1831,  a  brilliant  series  of  experiments,  and  by  November  24  had  col- 
lected and  presented  in  a  paper  read  to  the  Royal  Society  the  gen- 
eral propositions  pertaining  to  "electro-magnetic  induction,"  the 
basis  upon  which  are  built  many  applications  of  electricity  to  man's 
service.  Another  important  service  he  performed  was  proving  the 
doctrine  of  "definite  electro-magnetic  decomposition."  In  his  ex- 
periments with  polarization  of  light  he  discovered  that  light  passing 
through  a  prism  could  be  cut  off  or  transmitted  according  as  it  was 
acted  upon  by  magnetism,  and  called  this  discovery  "the  magnetism 
of  light."  Faraday  closed  a  long  and  well-spent  life  as  much  loved 
for  his  manly  qualities  as  he  was  admired  for  his  scientific  attain- 
ments. 

Since  Faraday's  death  so  many  improvements  in  the  practical 
application  of  electricity  have  been  made  that  a  volume  would  be 
needed  to  simply  record  the  subjects  and  names  of  the  inventors. 
The  methods  of  producing  it  and  some  of  the  uses  to  which  it  has 
been  applied  will  now  be  considered,  the  telephone  and  telegraph  be- 
ing treated  under  the  subject  of  communication.  Electricity  is 
commonly  produced  either  by  friction,  chemical  action,  heat,  or 
magnetism. 

Frictional  electricity  was  the  first  recognized  and  is  a  familiar 
form  of  this  energy.  Any  substance  when  rubbed  with  a  different 
substance  becomes  electrified.  Ordinary  substances  may  be  divided 
for  electrical  purposes  into  three  classes :  those  that  are  good  con- 
ductors of  electricity,  which  includes  all  metals  and  carbon;  those 
which  are  neither  good  conductors  nor  good  insulators,  such  as  water 
and  moist  bodies,  wood,  cotton,  paper;  last,  good  insulators,  as 
paraffin,  turpentine,  silk,  resin,  sealing  wax,  India  rubber,  gutta 


FLECTRICITY.  263 

percha,  ivory,  dry  wood,  dry  glass,  mica,  air  at  ordinary  pressure 
and  temperature.  In  dry,  cold  weather  the  friction  of  a  rubber  or 
tortoise  shell  comb  on  the  hair  will  electrify  the  hair  and  cause  it  to 
cling  to  the  teeth  of  the  comb.  If  a  cat's  fur  in  dry  weather  be 
stroked  with  a  dry,  warm  hand  a  crackling  noise  will  be  noticed  and 
in  the  dark  electric  sparks  can  be  plainly  seen.  In  winter  a  person  in 
slippers  can  slide  rapidly  over  the  carpet,  electrify  himself,  draw  a 
spark  from  the  hair  of  another  person,  and  on  touching  a  gas  jet  or 
any  bit  of  metal  draw  a  spark  or  perhaps  even  light  the  gas.  A 
glass  rod  rubbed  with  a  piece  of  silk  will  become  electrified  and  at- 
tract bits  of  paper,  etc.  If  the  rod  be  brought  near  a  pith  ball 
suspended  on  a  fine  thread,  the  ball  will  leap  forward  to  meet  it  and 
if  allowed  to  touch  it  will  appropriate  some  of  its  electricity,  be  re- 
pelled and  dart  away.  If  the  silk  now  be  substituted  for  the  glass 
rod,  the  pith  ball  will  be  attracted  by  that,  showing  that  both  the 
rod  and  the  silk  are  electrified  but  that  they  possess  different  prop- 
erties, for  here  as  elsewhere  "  opposites  attract."  The  condition  of 
the  electricity  in  the  rod  is  said  to  be  positive,  that  in  the  silk  nega- 
tive. If  cat's  fur  be  substituted  for  the  silk  and  the  rod  rubbed 
with  it,  the  condition  of  the  rod  will  be  negative  and  of  the  fur  posi- 
tive. When  a  storm  cloud  charged  with  electricity  passes  over  the 
earth  the  opposite  kind  is  induced  in  the  earth  beneath  it.  The 
cloud  and  the  earth  then  resemble  the  inner  and  outer  covering  of  a 
Leyden  jar,  the  atmosphere  corresponding  to  the  glass  of  the  jar. 
If  the  force  is  sufficiently  powerful  a  flash  of  lightning  will  burst 
through  the  air  and  the  electrical  equilibrium  be  restored.  In  most 
cases  the  discharges  are  from  one  cloud  to  another  unequally 
charged. 

Static  electricity,  from  .the  Greek  word  meaning  to  stand,  is 
that  which  is  stored  up  or  is  stationary.  Dynamic  electricity,  from 
the  Greek  word  meaning  power,  is  that  which  is  in  motion  and  so 


264          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

possessing  power.  The  electricity  with  which  the  cloud  is  charged  is 
static;  that  of  the  lightning's  flash,  dynamic.  In  Franklin's  experi- 
ment with  the  kite,  the  electricity  of  the  cloud  was  static,  but  when 
moving  in  the  string  was  dynamic,  and  as  soon  as  he  transferred  it  to 
the  Leyden  jar  it  became  static  again. 

If  a  glass  marble  or  ball  is  placed  on  a  good  insulator  and  a  glass 
rod  or  a  stick  of  sealing  wax  be  positively  electrified  and  brought 
near  the  ball  without  touching,  it  will  be  found  on  testing  the  ball 
with  a. bit  of  pith  that  the  side  next  the  rod  is  negatively  electric 
and  the  side  from  it  positively  electric,  and  that  when  the  rod  is 
removed  the  ball  shows  no  trace  of  electricity,  thus  proving  that  the 
electricity  within  the  ball  was  due  to  the  influence  of  the  rod,  or  was 
induced.  It  was  Faraday's  discovery  of  induction  by  an  electro- 
magnet that  rendered  commercially  possible  the  utilization  of  elec- 
tricity as  a  motive  power  where  great  force  is  required.  Electricity 
of  friction  is  rather  unmanageable  and  has  not  been  applied  practically 
to  any  great  extent. 

The  electricity  of  chemical  action  was  discovered  by  Volta, 
the  current  in  his  pile  being  produced  by  the  chemical  action  of  the 
moisture  in  the  layers  of  wet  paper  or  wet  cloth  on  the  zinc  and 
copper  plates  they  separated.  The  cell  is  the  most  familiar  applica- 
tion of  Volta's  discovery.  It  usually  consists  of  plates  of  zinc  and 
copper  partly  immersed  in  water  containing  acid,  the  plates  being 
separated  in  the  solution  but  connected  at  the  top  by  a  wire.  When 
so  connected  electricity  is  continuously  evolved.  The  mere  contact 
of  dry  copper  and  zinc  plates  electrifies  them,  but  does  not  produce 
a  continuous  current.  The  copper  plate  is  electrified  positively,  and 
the  zinc  plate  electrified  negatively.  In  the  days  when  the  fluid 
theory  of  electricity  prevailed,  a  positive  current  was  said  to  flow 
from  the  copper  through  the  connecting  wire  to  the  zinc.  In  the 
cell  just  described  water  (HaO)  is  separated  by  the  electric  current 


ELECTRICITY.  265 

into  hydrogen  and  oxygen,  the  gases  that  form  it.  The  zinc  plate  is 
attacked  by  the  oxygen  set  free,  which  combines  with  it  and  forms 
oxide  of  zinc  and  that  plate  wastes  away.  The  most  of  the  hydro- 
gen set  free  gathers  in  bubbles  on  the  copper  plate  and  retards  the 
action  and  is  said  to  "polarize  the  cell." 

Various  arrangements  of  cells  have  been  made  to  counteract  this 
action  and  of  all  such  the  Daniell  cell  was  one  of  the  first  and  best 
known.  In  the  Daniell  cell  the  copper  is  usually  placed  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  jar  and  surrounded  by  a  solution  of  sulphate  of  copper. 
The  zinc,  cast  in  a  form  to  expose  much  surface,  and  surrounded  by 
a  solution  of  sulphate  of  zinc,  is  placed  within  a  porous  earthenware 
cup,  near  the  top  of  the  cell.  The  hydrogen  that  formerly  collected 
on  the  copper  plate  now  gets  out  of  the  way  by  uniting  with  the 
copper  sulphate  (CuSO^,  sets  free  the  pure  copper  (Cu)  in  the  solu- 
tion and  forms  sulphuric  acid  (HaSO^.  The  pure  copper  is  depos- 
ited in  a  thin  film  over  the  copper  plate  and  the  chemical  action  at 
this  pole  should  be  especially  noted,  for  it  is  the  underlying  princi- 
ple in  electroplating.  At  the  other  pole  the  oxygen  unites  with  zinc 
to  form  zinc  oxide  (ZnO)  and  the  free  sulphuric  acid  combines  with 
the  oxide  and  forms  more  zinc  sulphate,  thus  keeping  up  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  cell.  The  Daniell  cell  was  such  a  great  improvement 
over  its  predecessors  that  the  Copley  medal  was  bestowed  on  its 
originator  in  1837.  Of  different  forms  of  cells  there  is  almost  no 
end,  but  the  Leclanch£,  Fuller,  De  La  Rue,  Latimer,  Clark,  and 
Bunsen  are  among  those  best  known  and  most  widely  employed. 

The  difference  in  electrical  condition  between  the  poles  of  a  bat- 
tery, one  called  positive  and  the  other  negative,  is  termed  electro- 
motive force  (E.  M.  F.)  or  difference  of  potential.  Little  is  known  as 
to  its  real  cause,  but  it  is  accountable  for  the  movement  of  electricity 
in  the  circuit.  This  is  measured  by  a  unit  called  volt,  after  Volta, 
and  is  the  force  produced  by  a  single  cell  made  according  to  certain 


266  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

standard  specifications.  Chemical  action  occurs  whenever  two  differ- 
ent metals  in  contact  are  immersed  in  a  liquid  which  attacks  one 
more  readily  than  it  does  the  other.  By  increasing  the  number  of 
cells  the  difference  in  potential  can  be  increased  and  the  current 
made  more  powerful.  Many  metals  beside  copper  and  zinc  are  used 
and  "in  the  following  list  of  materials,  when  any  two  in  contact  are 
plunged  in  dilute  sulphuric  acid,  that  which  is  higher  in  the  list 
becomes  the  positive  plate  or  negative  pole  to  that  which  is  lower. 

"Zinc  Nickel  Sulphur 

Cadmium  Bismuth  Gold 

Tin  Antimony  Platinum 

Lead  Copper  Graphite " 
Iron  * 

Dry  cells  can  be  prepared  and  the  use  of  liquids  avoided  by  com- 
bining the  necessary  chemicals  into  thick  pastes,  and  packing  the 
zinc  and  copper,  or  zinc  and  carbon,  in  them,  closing  the  whole  and 
leaving  a  vent  for  the  escape  of  the  gas  set  free  by  chemical  action. 
Such  cells  are  clean  and  well  adapted  for  household  and  medical 
purposes. 

Heat  can  cause  electricity,  as  was  discovered  by  Professor  See- 
beck  of  Berlin  about  the  year  1821.  If  a  bar  of  antimony  and  a  bar 
of  bismuth  be  joined  at  one  end,  their  other  ends  connected  by  a 
wire,  and  the  point  of  junction  be  heated  to  a  higher  temperature 
than  the  rest  of  the  bars,  a  current  of  electricity  will  be  set  up,  pass- 
ing through  the  wire  from  the  bismuth  to  the  antimony.  This 
arrangement  is  called  a  thermoelectric  couple.  Other  metals  instead 
of  bismuth  and  antimony  may  be  used.  In  those  named  in  the  fol- 
lowing list  each,  reading  downward,  is  positive  to  the  one  following. 


Bismujth 

Lead 

Zinc 

Phosphorus 

Cobaljb 

Tin 

Cadmium 

Antimony 

Potassium 

Copper 

Arsenic 

Tellurium 

Nickel 

Platinum 

Iron 

Selenium 

Sodium 

Sulphur 

Lead 

*  John  Munro. 


ELECTRICITY.  267 

The  strength  of  the  current  in  general  will  increase  with  the 
difference  in  temperature  between  the  point  of  junction  and  the  free 
ends  of  the  bars.  The  electromotive  force  of  such  a  couple  is  much 
smaller  than  in  an  ordinary  voltaic  cell,  but  the  power  of  the  thermo- 
electric battery  can  be  increased  by  increasing  the  couples,  the  same 
as  by  increasing  the  cells  of  a  chemical  battery.  For  many  purposes 
of  experimentation  the  thermoelectric  battery  possesses  advantages 
over  the  chemical.  It  is  cleaner,  lighter,  and  less  troublesome  to 
handle.  A  very  sensitive  pile  can  be  made,  and  piles  of  antimony 
and  bismuth  have  been  made  so  sensitive  that  when  measured  by  the 
galvanometer  they  indicate  the  radiation  of  heat  from  certain  stars. 
Such  are  used  to  measure  temperatures  where  thermometers  would 
not  be  available,  as  in  deep  sea  soundings  or  the  interiors  of  steam 
cylinders  or  furnaces.  Thermo-batteries  change  heat  directly  into 
electricity  without  calling  in  any  "  third  party,"  but  the  process  can 
be  reversed  as  well,  for  if  a  current  of  electricity  be  sent  through  a 
thermo-couple  from  the  antimony  to  the  bismuth,  the  point  of  junc- 
tion may  be  cooled  so  low  that  it  will  freeze  water.  Thermo-bat- 
teries have  been  used  for  working  telegraphs,  lighting  houses,  and 
running  small  electric  motors,  but,  as  at  present  constructed,  the  cost 
of  operating  is  in  excess  of  the  power  derived  from  them. 

The  electricity  of  magnetism  is  the  form  now  used  where  great 
force  is  required.  Its  application  was  first  based  upon  the  discov- 
eries of  Oersted,  Ampere,  Faraday,  and  Joseph  Henry,  while  numer- 
ous others  have  added  to  the  store  of  knowledge  concerning  it. 

The  loadstone  with  its  magnetic  and  directive  properties  was 
known  to  the  ancients,  and  the  Chinese  are  said  to  have  employed  it 
as  early  as  26  B.C.  to  guide  their  armies  over  the  great  plains  of 
China.  A  statue  with  an  extended  arm  was  carried  in  a  car  and  was 
so  pivoted  that  it  could  easily  revolve  but,  contrary  to  Western  cus- 
tom, it  pointed  toward  the  south  instead  of  the  north.  About  the 


268          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  and  certainly  no  later  than  the  fourth 
or  fifth  century,  Chinese  navigators  were  using  a  rude  mariner's 
compass.  There  is  hardly  any  doubt  that  the  compass  was  intro- 
duced into  Europe  from  the  East,  and  the  Crusaders  are  credited 
with  having  brought  it  into  France,  for  it  was  known  to  the  Arabs 
centuries  before  it  appeared  in  Europe. 

The  first  magnetic  needles  described  in  European  literature  be- 
long to  the  twelfth  century.  It  then  was  a  needle  rubbed  on  a  load- 
stone, put  upon  a  bit  of  straw,  and  floated  on  water,  when  its  point 
turning  to  the  pole  star  served  to  guide  travelers.  The  marvelous 
instinct  of  the  direction  of  home  possessed  by  the  carrier  pigeon  is 
familiar  to  all  and  the  raven  has  like  instinct.  An  ancient  Norse 
historian  speaks  of  "  Flocke  Vildergerser,"  a  Viking  king  who  sailed 
from  Norway  to  Iceland  in  868  and  took  with  him  ravens,  "for  in 
those  days  the  seaman  had  no  loadstone  in  the  northern  countries." 
With  the  discovery  of  the  mariner's  compass  came  an  enormous  in- 
crease in  human  knowledge  and  the  world's  commerce.  Sailors  were 
no  longer  compelled  to  creep  timidly  along  the  coast  from  port  to 
port  but  could  make  long  voyages  out  of  sight  of  land. 

The  power  of  the  magnet  was  also  known  to  the  Egyptians, 
Greeks,  and  Romans,  and  was  used  in  the  temples  to  suspend  statues 
of  the  gods  in  mid  air  or  to  produce  other  effects  calculated  to  excite 
the  awe  and  credulity  of  the  worshipers.  It  is  said  that  to  produce 
an  effect  upon  his  followers,  Mohammed's  body  at  his  death  was  in- 
closed in  a  metallic  coffin  and  that  when  carried  into  a  tomb  made  of 
magnetic  stones  the  coffin  soared  aloft  and  clung  to  the  ceiling,  pro- 
ducing a  most  profound  impression  on  those  of  his  adherents  who 
had  not  been  initiated  into  the  mystery. 

The  idea  that  magnetism  and  electricity  were  closely  related  had 
prevailed  some  time  before  Oersted  made  his  famous  discovery.  Dr. 
Gilbert,  of  whom  mention  has  been  made,  demonstrated  that  the 


ELECTRICITY. 


269 


whole  earth  was  a  great  magnet  and  that  in  the  magnetic  needle  op- 
posite poles  attracted  and  like  poles  repelled,  and  he  also  noted  the 
variation  and  dip  of  the  compass. 

A  bar  of  steel  rubbed  upon  a  loadstone  or  another  magnet  be- 
comes magnetic  and  if  suspended  the  ends  will  show  the  north  and 
south  poles.  If  the  bar  be  cut  in  two,  two  magnets  are  produced 
exhibiting  the  same  property  of  polarity,  and  this  holds  true  for  the 
minutest  division,  until  it  has  come  to  be  believed  that  in  the  atom  of  a 
magnet  one  end  is  positive  and  the  other  negative  ;  in  other  words,  that 
all  the  atoms  composing  the  magnet  are  arranged  with  their  positive 
poles  pointing  in  one  direction  and  their  negatives  in  the  other. 

A  Magnet  exerts  Influence  all  about  It.  If  a  horseshoe  magnet 
be  laid  on  a  piece  of  paper  and  iron  filings 
be  sprinkled  about  it  they  tend  to  arrange 
themselves  in  certain  definite  curved  lines 
which  Faraday  termed  'Mines  of  magnetic 
force,"  and  the  space  within  their  lines  is 
called  the  "  field." 

The  close  relation  of  magnetism  to  elec- 
tricity early  received  attention.  Oersted 
showed  if  a  wire  be  held  over  a  magnetic 
needle  and  parallel  with  it  and  a  current  be 
sent  through  the  wire  toward  the  north,  the 
north  pole  of  the  needle  would  swing  to 
the  left  or  west,  and  the  south  pole  to 
the  right  or  east,  until,  if  the  current  were 
strong,  the  needle  stood  at  right  angles 

with  the  wire.  If  the  electric  current  were  reversed  and  sent  from 
north  to  south  the  needle  swung  in  the  opposite  direction  and  thus 
the  direction  of  the  current  in  a  wire  could  be  determined  by  the 
compass,  and  as  weak  currents  deflected  the  needle  but  a  little  the 


HORSESHOE     MAGNET 
AND  IRON  FILINGS. 


270  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

strength  of  the  current  as  well  as  its  direction  could  be  measured. 
Some  influence  of  this  sort  seems  responsible  for  the  action  of  the 
mariner's  compass.  The  earth,  rotating  on  its  axis,  with  portions  of 
its  surface  unequally  heated  by  the  sun's  rays,  has  flowing  around  it 
magnetic  currents  and  the  compass  stands  approximately  at  right 
angles  to  these.  When  magnetic  storms  occur  the  compass  and  all 
electrical  instruments  are  affected  and  business  on  telephone  and 
telegraph  lines  running  east  and  west  may  be  suspended.  An  un- 
usual display  of  "sun  spots"  seems  to  coincide  with  such  storms.  It 
is  generally  believed  that  the  outer  envelope  (photosphere)  of  the  sun 
is  a  great  body  of  white  hot  gas  ;  that  some  greater  force  from  within 
blows  holes  through  this  envelope,  revealing  the  core  of  the  sun  as  a 
dark  spot,  and  that  the  energy  radiated  from  the  core  sets  up 
stronger  earth  currents  than  that  radiated  from  the  outer  envelope. 
As  a  famous  scientist  puts  it,  "  In  some  way,  evidently,  the  sun  af- 
fects the  earth  by  radiating  magnetic  lines  of  force  which  are  cut  by 
the  earth's  rotation,  and  so  creating  currents  of  electricity.  The 
sun  is  the  field  magnet,  and  the  earth  is  the  revolving  armature  of 
Nature's  great  dynamo  electric  machine."* 

The  germ  of  the  modern  dynamo  lay  in  Faraday's  discovery  that 
a  current  of  electricity  could  be  produced  in  an  insulated  wire  wound 
around  soft  iron,  by  bringing  the  ends  of  the  wire  closely  together 
and  rapidly  applying  and  removing  a  magnet  to  and  from  the  iron. 
In  1831  Faraday  took  a  hollow  coil  of  wire,  carried  the  ends  from  it 
around  a  delicate  galvanometer  and  showed  by  the  galvanometer  that 
when  a  magnet  was  thrust  into  the  coil  a  current  was  induced  for  an 
instant  in  a  certain  direction,  and  when  the  magnet  was  suddenly 
withdrawn  a  current  was  induced  in  the  opposite  direction.  As  ac- 
tion and  reaction  are  equal,  if  the  magnet  was  kept  stationary  and 
the  coil  advanced  and  withdrawn  the  same  effect  was  produced. 

*  Elisha  Gray. 


ELECTRICITY. 


THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  THE 
DYNAMO. 


The  line  of  force  about  a  magnet  has  been  already  mentioned. 
A  coil  of  wire  brought  within  these  lines  and  quickly  withdrawn  has 
a  current  of  electricity  excited  within  it,  not  continuously  but  only 
for  the  instant  that  it  comes  within  the  lines  of  force  or  passes  out- 
side them.  If  a  wire  be  placed  between  the  poles  of  a  magnet  at 
right  angles  to  the  lines  of  force,  as  in  the 
figure  shown  herewith,  and  apparently  moved 
from  the  reader,  an  electric  current  will  move 
in  the  direction  of  the  arrow ;  if  brought  to- 
ward the  reader  the  current  will  move  in  the 
opposite  direction.  If  the  poles  of  the  mag- 
net be  reversed  the  current  will  also  be  re- 
versed. This  is  the  principle  upon  which  the  dynamo  is  founded. 

Again,  if  an  electric  current  be  sent  through  the  wire  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  arrow  the  wire  will  automatically  move  from  the  reader 
in  the  direction  required  to  produce  such  a  current.  If  a  current  be 
sent  in  the  opposite  direction  the  motion  of  the  wire  will  be  reversed. 
This  is  the  principle  of  the  electric  motor,  for  the  motor  is  the  dy- 
namo reversed. 

Suppose    a    wire   to  be   bent  in    the  form   shown    in    Figure    A 
furnished  with  a  pulley,  P,    through  which  a  belt, 
B*  connects  it  with   a  steam   engine,   this  placed 
between  the  poles  of  a  magnet,  N  and  5.      Now 
if    the    armature    be   revolved    in     the    direction 
shown  by  arrows  on  the  belt  there  will  be  induced 
in  sides  a  and  b  of  the  armature,  currents  having 
THE  PRINCIPLE  OF      the  direction  shown  by  the  arrows.      When  side  a 
THE  MOTOR.  hag  passed  oyer  and   is  cutting  through  the  lines 

of  force  about  pole  5  the  current  will  be  reversed  as  will  that  of  side 
b  when  cutting  through  the  lines  of  force  at  pole  N.  As  the  wire 
revolves  the  currents  move  first  in  one  direction  and  then  the  other, 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

and  moving  back  and  forth  like  this  it  is  called  an  alternating  current. 
Instead  of  having  the  armature  of  a  single  wire,  as  used  in  our  illustra- 
tion, in  actual  practice  it  usually  consists  of  several  coils  of  wire  each 
having  a  soft  iron  core  and  forming  electro-magnets  all  fastened  to  a 
shaft  made  to  revolve  between  the  poles  of  powerful  magnets.  The 
electro-magnets  in  the  armature  are  brought  during  the  revolution 
close  to  the  poles  of  the  magnets  in  the  field  but  without  touching, 
and  the  ends  of  the  wire  of  each  coil  in  the  armature  are  connected 
at  the  hub  with  separate  insulated  plates  called  commutators.  The 
commutators  sift  out  the  different  currents  of  electricity  and  deliver 
them  to  flat  springs  known  as  brushes,  which  rest  upon  the  hub  and 
form  the  electrical  connection  between  the  commutators  and  the 
wire  that  is  to  carry  the  current  away.  With  reference  to  the  cur- 
rents produced  there  are  two  kinds  of  dynamos;  one  the  alternating 
and  the  other  the  continuous  current.  An  alternating  current  has 
been  described  and  its  relation  to  a  dynamo  is  obvious.  The  con- 
tinuous current  machine  has  the  commutators  and  brushes  so  ar- 
ranged as  to  take  up  all  the  currents  having  one  direction  or  polarity 
and  send  them  through  one  channel,  and  all  the  currents  having  the 
opposite  direction  or  polarity  through  another  channel. 

In  the  first  dynamos  constructed  permanent  steel  magnets  were 
employed,  but  these  were  not  only  expensive  but  they  limited  the 
power  of  the  machine  to  the  strength  of  the  magnet,  and  made  the 
use  of  a  dynamo  impracticable  where  expense  was  an  item.  Later, 
the  magnets  were  wound  with  coils  of  wire  through  which  currents 
of  electricity  were  passed  by  voltaic  batteries.  This  increased  the 
strength  of  the  magnet  and  so  the  strength  of  the  current  induced 
within  the  armature,  for  the  stronger  the  lines  of  force  between  the 
magnetic  poles,  the  stronger  the  current  excited  within  the  armature. 

One  of  the  most  important  improvements  was  yet  to  come. 
About  1855  Hjorth  of  Copenhagen  discarded  the  voltaic  battery  and 


ELECTRICITY.  273 

took  the  current  from  the  armature,  sent  it  through  the  coils  about 
the  magnets  in  the  field,  increased  their  strength,  and  by  so  doing 
increased  the  strength  of  the  current  they  induced  in  the  armature, 
revolving  between  the  poles.  Such  a  proceeding  seems  almost  like 
making  something  out  of  nothing. 

The  next  great  step  was  to  do  away  altogether  with  the  perma- 
nent magnets  in  the  field  and  to  use  soft  iron  cores  wound  with  numer- 
ous wrappings  of  insulated  wire  through  which  a  current  of  electricity 
was  passed.  Such  magnets  were  far  stronger  than  those  having  steel 
cores  and  the  gain  in  efficiency  was  marked.  It  had  been  thought 
that  permanent  magnets  were  necessary  because  iron  could  not  be 
permanently  magnetized,  and  if  there  were  no  magnetic  force  in  the 
field  there  would  be  no  electricity  generated  when  the  armature  was 
revolved,  but  Siemens  discovered  that  there  was  enough  "resid- 
ual magnetism  "  in  the  iron  so  that  he  could  dispense  with  the  steel 
magnets.  Such  a  machine  when  first  started  exhibits  but  slight 
magnetism  and  produces  a  feeble  current,  but  as  quickly  as  the  mag- 
nets are  reinforced  by  the  current  produced  in  the  armature  they 
grow  stronger  and  stronger  until  they  reach  the  point  of  "  satura- 
tion "  and  the  machine  works  at  its  greatest  efficiency.  After  the 
electro-magnets  in  the  field  have  reached  the  point  of  "saturation" 
any  additional  strength  of  the  current  is  lost  upon  them  for  it  does 
not  increase  their  power. 

Where  great  power  is  required  the  electro-magnets  in  the  field 
are  increased  in  number  and  may  even  make  a  complete  circle  within 
which  the  armature,  having  as  many  electro-magnets  as  can  be  packed 
within  it,  is  made  to  revolve  at  high  speed.  After  the  fundamental 
principles  of  electro-dynamics  were  recognized,  Hjorth,  Wilde,  Sie- 
mens, Farmer,  Wheatstone,  Varley,  and  Gramme  had  most  to  do 
with  their  practical  application  to  the  dynamo.  Of  late  years  Wes- 
ton,  Brush,  Edison,  Thomson,  Houston,  Westinghouse  and  others 


2/4          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

have  made  improvements  in  its  construction  and  brought  it  to  its 
present  high  state  of  efficiency.  Such  in  brief  has  been  the  develop- 
ment of  the  dynamo,  and  it  has  made  possible  the  electric  light,  the 
electric  street  car,  electroplating  and  every  branch  of  applied  elec- 
tricity where  any  considerable  force  is  required,  for  though  electric 
heating,  lighting,  propulsion,  etc.,  were  possible  with  voltaic  batter- 
ies yet  it  was -at  such  an  expense  as  to  be  prohibitive.  The  princi- 
ples underlying  the  application  of  electricity  as  a  motive  power, 
discovered  many  years  before  the  perfection  of  the  dynamo,  were 
obliged  to  wait  until  the  art  of  electricity  had  caught  up  with  the  sci- 
ence and  some  means  of  producing  the  force  could  be  devised  that 
would  render  the  practical  application  of  these  principles  commer- 
cially profitable. 

One  Point  must  not  be  Forgotten.  The  dynamo  does  not  make 
electricity.  It  simply  transforms  into  electricity  the  power  required 
to  revolve  the  armature.  This  power  may  be  derived  from  a  wind- 
mill, a  water  wheel,  or  a  steam  engine.  In  ordinary  practice  the 
dynamo  is  able  to  deliver  an  electric  current  equivalent  to  about  90 
per  cent,  of  the  power  furnished  by  the  engine.  The  best  practice  ap- 
proximates 95  per  cent.,  the  other  5  per  cent,  being  the  toll  Nature 
exacts  in  the  way  of  friction,  losses  due  to  induction,  heat,  and 
"leakage." 

Electric  Motors  are  about  as  old  as  the  Dynamo.  In  1826  Bar- 
low of  Woolrich  made  a  spur  wheel  something  like  the  escapement 
of  a  clock  and  moved  it  by  electricity.  The  Abbe  Dal  Negro  of 
Padua  made  in  1830  an  electric  pendulum.  In  1828  Professor  Joseph 
Henry  devised  his  powerful  electro-magnets,  prophesied  the  use  of 
electricity  as  a  motive  power,  and  in  1831  made  and  described  a 
crude  electric  motor.  He  was  followed  by  Sturgeon,  Davenport, 
Jacobi,  Page,  and  many  others,  but  although  the  devices  of  these 
men  were  interesting  and  from  them  much  concerning  the  princi- 


ELECTRICITY.  2/5 

pies  of  electricity  was  learned,  they  were  not  commercially  prac- 
ticable. 

In  1873,  at  the  industrial  exhibition  at  Vienna,  several  Gramme 
dynamos  were  on  exhibition.  A  workman  by  mistake  connected 
one  dynamo  to  another  that  was  in  operation  and  greatly  to  his  sur- 
prise saw  the  dynamo  which  he  had  connected  begin  to  revolve  in  a 
contrary  direction.  The  accidental  discovery  was  appreciated.  It 
was  found  that  the  Gramme  dynamo  would  work  equally  well  as  a 
motor  and  a  much  better  understanding  of  the  nature  of  electric 
magnetism  resulted. 

Dynamos  and  electric  motors  are  now  constructed  varying  as 
much  according  to  the  work  required  of  them  as  do  steam  engines 
and  locomotives,  and  volumes  have  been  written  concerning  the  size 
of  the  wire  and  the  manner  in  which  it  should  be  wound,  together 
with  other  details  of  construction  calculated  to  give  the  best  results. 
Space  will  not  permit  a  technical  description.  It  will  be  enough  for 
the  general  reader  to  know  that  a  steam  engine  turning  a  dynamo 
will  produce  a  current  of  electricity  and  that  this  current  of  electric- 
ity carried  to  an  electric  motor  differing  only  in  a  few  details  of 
structure  from  the  dynamo  will  there  produce  mechanical  motion 
which  can  be  used  to  turn  machinery. 

In  every  electric  motor  there  are  the  same  two  parts  as  in  the 
dynamo:  the  armature  and  the  magnetic  field.  The  field  is  usually 
produced  by  a  different  current  from  the  same  source  that  supplies 
the  motor.  By  the  aid  of  the  dynamo  and  the  electric  motor,  water 
power  may  be  utilized  by  employing  it  to  turn  water  wheels,  the 
latter  turning  dynamos.  The  electric  current  produced  is  sent 
through  copper  wires  to  some  point  where  it  is  to  be  used  and  there 
taken  by  the  electric  motor  and  turned  into  mechanical  force.  A 
waterfall  at  Lauffen,  Germany,  as  early  as  1890,  transmitted  through 
a  copper  wire  %  inch  in  diameter  100  horse-power  to  Frankfort, 


2/6          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM 

about  one  hundred  miles  away,  with  a  loss  of  but  5  per  cent,  from 
the  wire. 

Electric  Railroads.  With  the  construction  of  the  Gramme  and 
Siemens  dynamos  it  became  possible  to  operate  electric  railroads  at  a 
profit.  At  a  central  power  house  enormous  dynamos  turned  by 
huge  steam  engines  send  a  powerful  electric  current  through  the 
trolley  wire,  return  being  made  by  way  of  the  earth  and  rails.  The 
current  is  taken  by  the  car  through  the  trolley  pole  to  an  electric 
motor  underneath  the  floor  of  the  car,  which,  set  in  motion  by  the 
current,  revolves  and,  being  connected  with  gearing  on  the  axle  of 
the  car  wheels,  propels  the  car  at  a  speed  varying  with  the  strength  of 
the  current.  The  speed  of  the  motor  is  regulated  by  changing  the 
electrical  pressure  at  the  brushes  of  the  armature.  Almost  any  de- 
sired speed  can  be  attained,  130  miles  per  hour  having  been  reached 
in  experiments,  for  the  motor  revolving  continuously  in  one  direction 
has  an  advantage  over  the  steam  engine  with  its  reciprocating  parts 
which  must  be  stopped  and  started  many  times  a  second. 

Measures  of  Electricity.  What  in  electricity  corresponds  to 
pressure  in  steam  and  water  is  measured  by  a  unit  called  "volt," 
from  Volta,  the  inventor  of  the  voltaic  battery.  A  volt  is  the  power 
or  electromotive  force  of  one  cell  of  a  battery  made  according  to 
standard  specifications,  just  the  same  as  a  cord  of  wood  is  a  pile  hav- 
ing a  certain  length  and  height. 

Electricity  passes  through  some  metals  easier  than  others.  Silver 
is  the  best  conductor  and  the  other  metals  follow  in  the  order  named : 
copper,  zinc,  platinum,  iron,  German  silver,  mercury;  copper  being 
a  pretty  good  conductor  while  iron  offers  nearly  seven  times  as  much 
resistance  as  silver,  in  order  to  get  as  much  electricity  through  a 
copper  wire  as  through  a  silver  wire  of  the  same  size,  the  pressure 
must  be  increased.  The  unit  of  measure  for  the  resistance  offered 
by  the  wire  is  the  "ohm,"  so  named  after  G.  S.  Ohm,  a  physicist 


ELECTRICITY. 

of  Bavaria,  who  'discovered  the  so-called  Ohm's  law,  which  is  that 
the  strength  of  the  current  varies  directly  as  the  electromotive  force 
and  inversely  as  the  resistance.  An  ohm  is  the  resistance  which  a 
column  of  mercury  one  millimeter  square  and  106.3  centimeters  long 
offers  to  a  current  of  electricity.  The  resistance  offered  by  a  mile  of 
ordinary  telegraph  wire  is  about  thirteen  ohms. 

The  ampere  is  the  unit  that  measures  the  strength  of  the  current 
in  the  wire  and  is  named  after  the  celebrated  French  electrician, 
A.  M.  Ampere.  It  is  the  current  from  a  battery  having  one  volt 
electromotive  force,  sent  through  a  wire  having  one  ohm  of  resist- 
ance, and  such  a  current  is  equivalent  in  mechanical  energy  to  one 
watt,  and  746  watts  are  equal  to  one  horse-power.  The  watt  is 
named  after  James  Watt  of  steam  engine  fame. 

The  transformer  is  a  device  by  which  alternating  currents  of 
electricity  can  be  changed  from  one  pressure  or  voltage  to  a  different 
one.  The  electric  currents  as  sent  from  power  plants  frequently 
range  from  2OOO  to  2500  volts.  Such  a  pressure  would  be  danger- 
ous to  take  inside  a  dwelling,  for  if  the  insulation  were  faulty  fires 
would  start  and  the  presence  of  a  wire  having  such  a  voltage  would 
be  a  constant  menace  to  life,  for  a  shock  of  1000  volts  would  be  seri- 
ous if  not  fatal  to  a  human  being.  The  alternating  currents  used  for 
ordinary  street  lamps  usually  range  from  1000  to  1500  volts  and  this 
is  a  higher  pressure  than  is  necessary  in  the  light  proper,  for  arc 
Tghts  usually  run  with  from  50  to  IOO  volts  each.  The  change  is 
effected  by  the  box-shaped  apparatus  frequently  seen  on  electric 
light  poles.  These  are  called  transformers  and  by  them  a  current  at 
a  high  pressure  can  be  turned  into  a  low  pressure,  in  which  case  it  is 
a  " step-down"  transformer,  or  a  low  pressure  may  be  changed  into  a 
high  pressure,  in  which  case  it  is  a  "step-up"  transformer.  If  a 
current  of  water  be  sent  under  heavy  pressure  through  a  small  pipe 
and  discharged  into  a  tight  box  having  as  an  outlet  a  much  larger 


278  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

pipe  it  is  plain  that  while  the  large  pipe  will  discharge  in  a  given 
length  of  time  the  same  amount  of  water  as  the  small  one,  it  will  do 
so  at  much  less  pressure.  Such  an  arrangement  of  the  pipes  and  box 
might  be  called  a  "step-down"  transformer.  If  the  current  of 
water  were  sent  through  the  large  pipe  it  is  plain  that  it  would  be 
discharged  through  the  small  pipe  at  much  greater  velocity  and  such 
an  arrangement  would  be  a  "step-up"  transformer.  In  the  power 
plant  at  Niagara  the  current  as  it  comes  from  the  dynamos  is  about 
2200  volts.  To  transmit  the  power  to  Buffalo  economically  it  is  ad- 
visable to  send  it  under  heavy  pressure,  as  the  "resistance"  and  loss 
of  force  is  much  less  proportionately,  so  the  current  is  "  stepped- 
up  "  to  about  10,000  volts,  taken  to  Buffalo,  and  "  stepped-down  "  to 
the  voltage  required  for  that  place. 

The  transformer  itself  is  but  a  modification  of  the  "  induction 
coil  "  with  the  core  usually  made  of  a  bundle  of  rather  coarse,  soft 
iron  wires,  for  these  wires  magnetize  and  demagnetize  more  rapidly 
than  would  a  solid  core.  Around  this  core,  called  the  primary  coil, 
is  wound  a  secondary  coil  of  fine  wire.  Now,  if  a  powerful  alter- 
nating current  be  sent  through  the  fine  wire  a  current  of  less  voltage 
but  more  quantity  will  be  induced  in  the  coarse  wire.  This  is  the 
"step-down"  arrangement.  If  the  current  is  sent  through  the 
coarse  wire  it  is  "  stepped-up  "  and  goes  through  the  smaller  wire  at 
a  greater  pressure. 

The  arc  light  was  profitably  employed  as  soon  as  the  dynamo  had 
been  developed  to  where  it  could  produce  the  necessary  electricity  at 
moderate  expense.  Sir  Humphry  Davy  noted  as  early  as  1802  that 
when  a  current  of  electricity  was  sent  through  two  bits  of  carbon  it 
heated  them  to  white  heat.  In  1809  he  produced  a  magnificent  4- 
inch  arc  light  and  exhibited  it  to  the  public  in  1810,  but  the  energy 
when  furnished  by  a  voltaic  battery  was  very  expensive  and  such 
batteries  are  more  likely  to  get  out  of  order  than  steam  engines  and 


ELECTRICITY. 

dynamos.  Even  after  the  dynamo  was  ready  the  fears  and  preju- 
dices of  the  public  had  to  be  removed  and  insurance  companies 
shown  that  new  methods  of  lighting  did  not  involve  more  danger 
than  the  methods  in  use. 

When  a  current  of  electricity  passes  through  a  good  conductor  it 
does  not  materially  raise  the  temperature  of  the  conductor,  but  if 
passing  through  a  poor  conductor  the  temperature  rises  and  the  con- 
ductor may  become  red  or  white  hot.  Suppose  two  pencil  shaped 
pieces  of  carbon  in  contact  and  a  current  of  electricity  sent  through 
them.  At  the  small  point  of  contact  where  the  greatest  resist- 
ance is  encountered  much  heat  will  be  developed,  the  points  will 
glow  and  the  air  space  between  reach  a  temperature  so  high  that  it 
becomes  a  conductor;  then  if  the  points  be  separated  ever  so  slightly 
a  brilliant  light  will  be  produced,  for  though  the  carbons  themselves 
are  hot  the  surface  between  the  points  offers  still  greater  resistance  to 
the  current  and  the  arc  may  have  a  temperature  of  4800  Fahrenheit. 
Such  an  intense  heat  consumes  the  carbons  and  much  ingenuity  has 
been  exercised  in  devising  some  efficient  method  of  candle  feed,  for 
as  the  carbons  waste  away  the  arc  widens  until  it  becomes  so  wide 
that  the  currents  are  interrupted  and  the  light  goes  out.  This  makes 
it  necessary  to  adopt  some  mechanism  by  which  the  carbons  may  be 
made  to  approach  each  other  as  they  are  consumed  and  so  keep  the 
space  between  them  constant.  Usually  the  lower  carbon  is  station- 
ary and  the  upper  one  is  fed  down  by  gravity  and  controlled  in  its 
movements  by  delicate  electrical  devices. 

In  arc  lights  produced  by  continuous  currents  the  positive  carbon 
is  hotter  than  the  negative  and  is  consumed  about  twice  as  fast. 
The  points  of  the  carbon  also  differ.  The  negative  carbon  wastes 
away  to  a  point  like  a  lead  pencil,  while  the  end  of  the  positive  car- 
bon is  flat  or  hollowed  out,  forming  a  "  crater." 

In  arc  lights  produced   by  alternating  currents  these   differences 


280          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

exist  in  a  less  degree,  but  the  illumination  varies  more.  Arc  lights 
are  usually  surrounded  by  a  glass  globe  to  diffuse  the  light  and  avoid 
the  striking  contrast  of  intense  light  and  heavy  shadows,  but  such 
globes  cut  off  from  40  per  cent,  to  60  per  cent,  of  the  light. 

The  search  light  is  another  interesting  example  of  a  practical 
application  of  electricity.  It  consists  of  an  arc  light  placed  in  front 
of  mirrors  made  either  of  silvered  glass  or  polished  metal  and  curved 
so  as  to  focus  the  light.  The  lamp  and  the  mirrors  are  mounted 
within  a  cylinder  hung  on  pivots  so  as  to  be  easily  turned  in  any  di- 
rection. The  front  of  the  cylinder  is  covered  with  thin  plain  glass 
to  protect  the  mechanism  within.  Search  lights  are  made  of  such 
enormous  power  that  they  may  be  visible  150  miles  away.  The  one 
on  the  observatory  on  Mount  Lowe,  California,  said  to  be  the  most 
powerful  in  use  in  the  world,  is  of  3,000,000  candle  power  and 
weighs  6000  pounds,  yet  it  is  so  perfectly  balanced  in  a  tank  of  mer- 
cury that  it  can  be  easily  turned  with  one  finger. 

Fire  departments  of  great  cities  now  use  portable  search  lights 
capable  of  sending  powerful  beams  through  clouds  of  smoke  and 
steam  and  lighting  up  dark  streets,  the  faces  of  walls,  and  interior  of 
buildings  that  otherwise  shrouded  in  darkness  would  greatly  increase 
the  danger  of  the  valiant  fire  fighters. 

The  search  light  is  useful  to  ships,  for  it  assists  in  detecting  land- 
marks, reefs,  rocks,  and  other  dangers  of  navigation  or  the  proximity 
of  other  vessels,  and  the  equipment  of  no  warship  to-day  is  complete 
without  one  or  more  search  lights.  Large  battleships  frequently 
carry  as  many  as  half  a  dozen,  that  all  sides  may  be  lighted  up  or 
duplicate  lamps  provided  against  accident  or  injury  in  battle.  By 
the  aid  of  the  search  light  torpedo  boats  can  be  seen  at  a  distance  of 
more  than  a  mile  and  the  boat  finds  in  the  search  light  and  the  rapid 
fire  gun  a  combination  most  dangerous  for  her  to  oppose. 

The  incandescent  light  followed  as   a  natural  consequence  from 


ELECTRICITY.  28 1 

the  discovery  of  Davy  and  other  scientists  at  the  beginning  of  the 
century  that  a  platinum  wire  could  be  made  white  hot  by  sending  a 
strong  enough  current  of  electricity  through  it.  However,  the  dif- 
ficulty with  such  a  lamp  was  that  it  was  not  economical,  for  at  a  low 
temperature  it  turns  into  light  only  a  small  part  of  the  energy  sup- 
plied it.  Solids  in  general  when  heated  emit  red  rays  at  1600 
Fahrenheit,  yellow  rays  at  1300,  blue  rays  at  1500,  and  white  heat 
at  about  2000,  and  if  the  substance  be  heated  hotter,  the  light 
emitted  is  much  greater  proportionally,  so  it  is  economical  to  heat 
the  substance  as  hot  as  possible.  The  trouble  with  the  early  attempt 
was  that  the  most  refractory  metals  melted  at  about  3450  Fahrenheit, 
while  the  electric  arc  easily  reached  4800. 

We  have  seen  that  all  materials  offer  resistance  to  the  passage  of 
an  electric  current  but  some  more  than  others;  just  as  an  auger  will 
bore  in  soft  wood  without  materially  heating  the  wood  but  if  the 
same  auger  be  used  in  very  hard  wood  heat  enough  may  be  devel- 
oped to  char  the  wood. 

About  1840  Grove,  the  inventor  of  the  Grove  battery,  devised 
what  was  perhaps  the  first  electric  glow  or  incandescent  lamp.  He 
described  it  as  follows:  "A  coil  of  platinum  wire  is  attached  to  two 
copper  wires,  the  lower  parts  of  which,  or  those  most  distant  from 
the  platinum,  are  well  varnished ;  these  are  fixed  erect  in  a  glass  of 
distilled  water,  and  another  cylindrical  glass,  closed  at  the  upper  end, 
is  inverted  over  them,  so  that  its  open  mouth  rests  on  the  bottom  of 
the  former  glass ;  the  projecting  ends  of  the  copper  wires  are  con- 
nected with  a  voltaic  battery  (two  or  three  pairs  of  the  nitric  acid 
combination),  and  the  ignited  wire  now  gives  a  steady  light.  In- 
stead of  making  the  wires  pass  through  the  water,  they  may  be 
fixed  to  metallic  caps  well  luted  to  the  necks  of  a  glass  globe." 
Other  inventors  were  soon  in  the  field  and  after  the  Grove  lamp  came 
those  of  Starr-King,  Farmer,  and  others,  but  they  all  encountered 


282          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

the  difficulty  of  the  wasting  away  of  the  incandescent  body  and  it 
was  not  until  1877  when  the  Sawyer-Man  lamp  was  produced  that 
any  great  activity  was  exhibited  in  this  field.  It  was  found  that  the 
incandescent  body  of  an  electric  lamp  if  exposed  to  the  atmosphere 
rapidly  wasted  away,  and  to  overcome  this  difficulty  Sawyer  inclosed 
the  incandescent  carbon  in  his  lamp  in  an  atmosphere  of  nitrogen, 
which  is  not  a  supporter  of  combustion.  Edison  had  also  entered 
the  field  and  the  strife  in  the  Patent  Office^  between  him  and  Sawyer- 
Man  was  carried  to  the  courts  and  finally  decided  in  his  favor. 
There  are  now  many  kinds  of  incandescent  lamps,  the  chief  differ- 
ence being  the  manner  in  which  they  prepare  the  carbon  filament. 
The  price  has  gone  steadily  down. 

The  light  in  an  incandescent  lamp  is  emitted  from  the  carbon 
filament  and  the  amount  depends  upon  the-  temperature  to  which 
the  loop  can  be  heated  without  volatilizing  the  carbon.  Filaments 
usually  break  down  because  the  action  of  the  current  tends  to  dis- 
perse minute  particles  of  carbon  and  deposit  them  on  the  inner  side 
of  the  bulb,  darkening  it  and  shutting  off  some  of  the  light.  Con- 
siderable skill  and  much  care  are  required  in  the  manufacture  of  the 
filament.  It  is  necessary  to  use  some  material  that  contains  carbon 
in  chemical  combination  with  some  fiber.  The  material  chosen  is 
given  its  proper  form  and  then  baked  at  a  high  temperature  while 
preserved  from  contact  with  the  air  until  it  is  carbonized.  It  is  then 
heated  to  incandescence  by  an  electric  current  in  an  atmosphere  of 
hydro-carbon  vapor,  which  coats  it  with  carbon  freed  from  the  vapor. 
The  last  operation  is  called  ''flashing"  and  gives  it  the  silver  gray 
luster  that  is  considered  best  for  wearing. 

Various  materials  are  employed  by  "the  different  manufacturers 
in  preparing  the  filaments.  In  the  Edison  process  they  are  made 
from  bamboo,  while  in  the  Swan  lamp  a  cotton  thread  is  drawn 
through  sulphuric  acid  and  then  carbonized  and  submitted  to  the 
flashing  process. 


ELECTRICITY.  283 

When  the  filaments  are  ready  to  be  mounted,  the  ends  are  elec- 
troplated with  copper  so  as  to  form  a  good  junction,  and  turned  into 
loops  and  fastened  to  two  platinum  wires  which  penetrate  the  in- 
terior of  the  glass  bulb.  A  vacuum  is  then  created  in  the  bulb  by 
an  air  pump  until  the  pressure  within  is  equal  to  only  about  one 
millionth  of  an  atmosphere  and  the  bulb  is  sealed.  Platinum  ter- 
minals are  chosen  because  platinum  contracts  and  expands  under  heat 
about  the  same  as  glass  and  so  lessens  the  danger  of  cracking  the 
bulb.  The  ends  of  the  platinum  wire  are  carried  outside  and  elec- 
trical connection  made  with  them. 

A  current  of  considerable  power  coming  through  a  wire  of  greater 
diameter  than  the  thread-like  filament  would  obviously  encounter 
resistance  in  passing  through  so  small  a  conductor,  and  frail  as  the 
filament  is  and  appears  it  gives  as  much  resistance  as  several  miles  of 
ordinary  telegraph  wire.  Only  continuous  currents  can  be  used  for 
incandescent  lamps  and  they  are  usually  what  is  known  as  "low 
tension"  currents,  ranging  from  100  to  250  volts,  and  would  not  in- 
jure a  person  brought  in  contact  with  them.  Trolley  lines  usually 
employ  about  500  volts,  enough  to  kill  animals  but  not  necessarily 
enough  to  kill  a  human  being.  The  voltage  in  lines  feeding  arc 
lights  has  increased  rapidly  of  late  years  and  some  lines  now  carry 
high  tension  alternating  currents  ranging  from  2000  to  5000  volts. 
Such  a  current  could  start  a  fire  or  kill  a  person  instantly.  Incan- 
descent lamps  operate  under  water  as  well  as  in  the  air  and  so  are 
used  to  good  advantage  by  divers.  Since  they  do  not  deprive  the 
atmosphere  of  its  oxygen  they  are  especially  adapted  to  lighting  the 
interior  of  mines,  tunnels,  dwellings,  and  holds  of  ships. 

When  it  became  apparent  that  the  incandescent  lamp  was  efficient 
it  struck  terror  to  the  hearts  of  the  holders  of  gas  stock,  and  on 
October  n,  1878,  a  veritable  panic  occurred  at  the  London  Stock 
Exchange,  but  the  field  of  light  is  broad  enough  for  both,  and  the 
market  reports  show  that  gas  is  still  a  pretty  good  investment. 


284          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

Electric  lighting  came  into  use  with  great  rapidity.  A  quarter 
of  a  century  ago  it  was  so  little  used  that  it  was  an  object  of  interest 
and  curiosity.  During  the  year  1899  a  single  company,  the  General 
Electric,  is  said  to  have  received  orders  for  more  than  10,000,000  in- 
candescent lamps,  and  it  is  estimated  that  the  value  of  the  electric 
lighting  plants  in  the  United  States  alone  is  now  equal  to  at  least 
$600,000,000. 

Electric  heating,  now  familiar  in  our  electric  street  cars,  promises 
to  become  equally  well  known  in  the  household  wherever  cleanliness, 
convenience  of  handling,  and  instant  availability  will  offset  the  in- 
crease in  cost.  The  heat  available  is  ample,  for  the  temperature  of 
an  electric  arc  is  variously  estimated  at  from  6000  to  10,000  Fahren- 
heit, or  several  times  that  of  a  coal  furnace,  and  electrical  ranges, 
ovens,  gridirons,  etc.,  are  now  installed  in  many  of  the  best  hotels 
and  restaurants.  A  flatiron  having  within  it  an  electric  heater  con- 
nected by  an  insulated  wire  has  proved  serviceable.  Quilts  for  beds 
are  made  with  fine  wires  interwoven  through  which  a  current  of 
electricity  can  be  sent,  maintaining  a  constant  temperature  most  ac- 
ceptable to  an  invalid.  An  insulated  handle  to  which  is  attached  a 
loop  of  platinum  wire  heated  by  an  electric  current  is  frequently 
used  by  physicians  in  place  of  the  knife  in  cautery  and  by  its  aid 
tumors  or  other  objects  can  be  easily  excised. 

Electric  welding  was  invented  and  perfected  by  Professor  Elihu 
Thomson  of  Lynn,  Mass.,  who  took  out  his  patent  for  the  process 
August  10,  1886.  It  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  recent  ap- 
plications of  the  alternating  current.  A  current  of  low  voltage  but 
large  in  quantity  is  passed  through  the  metals  where  they  are  to  be 
joined.  Since  the  metals  cannot  fit  absolutely,  the  surface  in  contact 
must  be  less  than  their  whole  diameter,  and  when  the  current  is  sent 
through  the  smaller  portion  a  higher  resistance  is  set  up  at  the  point 
of  contact,  where  the  temperature  rises  until  the  ends  of  the  metals 


ELECTRICITY.  285 

fuse  and  can  be  forced  together  by  simple  pressure.  By  electric  weld- 
ing not  only  metals  of  the  same  kind  but  of  different  kinds  may  be 
joined,  as  brass  and  iron,  and  a  small  piece  may  be  welded  at  an 
angle  to  a  larger  one ;  hollow  pieces  such  as  pipes  or  pieces  irregular 
in  outline  may  be  welded  as  though  they  were  solid,  for  the  welding 
heat  can  be  produced  exactly  at  the  point  where  it  is  needed  and 
without  detriment  to  any  other  part. 

The  firefly  is  not  without  interest  to  scientists,  for  that  insect 
presents  a  problem  for  their  consideration  that  may  well  be  studied. 
It  performs  the  marvelous  feat  of  producing  light  without  any  accom- 
panying heat.  Professor  Langley  seems  to  have  demonstrated  that 
of  the  waves  radiated  by  a  gas  flame  only  2.4  per  cent,  are  luminous, 
those  from  an  electric  arc  reach  but  10  per  cent.,  and  those  from  the 
sun  only  38  per  cent.,  while  the  radiation  of  the  firefly  consists 
wholly  of  "  visible  wave  frequencies." 

Scientists  are  not  agreed  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  light  of 
the  firefly  is  produced.  One  eminent  authority  says,  "The  light 
may  continue  long  after  the  death  of  the  cells  and  therefore  it  is  not 
a  property  of  the  living  protoplasm  as  such."  Another  states  that  if 
the  luminous  organs  are  dried  and  pulverized  in  a  mortar  they  have  no 
glow,  but  if  a  little  water  be  added  the  glow  returns  and  is  constant. 
It  can  hardly  be  a  form  of  combustion,  for  it  takes  place  equally  well 
in  a  vacuum,  in  hydrogen  gas,  and  in  carbonic  acid  gas,  .all  of  which 
are  powerless  to  support  combustion,  and  the  intensity  of  the  glow 
is  not  increased  in  an  atmosphere  of  oxygen,  which  would  stimulate 
combustion. 

The  electric  furnace  is  in  reality  an  electric  arc  of  huge  propor- 
tions and  the  heat  developed  is  so  intense  that  it  fuses  all  known  ele- 
ments and  heats  carbon  vapor  so  hot  as  to  develop  the  true  spectrum. 
The  furnace  is  simple  in  construction,  being  merely  a  number  of 
electrodes  at  each  end  of  a  firebrick  structure,  the  connection  be- 


286  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

tween  them  being  usually  made  by  some  form  of  carbon.  A  dynamo 
furnishes  an  electric  current  of  large  quantity  and  moderate  voltage, 
and  the  carbon  connecting  the  electrodes  offers  such  a  resistance  that 
the  arc  soon  reaches  a  higher  temperature  than  can  be  produced  by 
any  other  artificial  means. 

Various  methods  are  employed  to  measure  the  temperature,  but 
a  common  one  is  to  put  a  piece  of  platinum  into  an  electric  circuit, 
increase  the  current  until  the  piece  is  red  hot  or  at  a  temperature  of 
about  1800°.  A  delicate  thermometer  is  then  placed  exactly  three 
feet  from  the  platinum  and  the  temperature  carefully  noted.  The 
electric  current  is  then  increased  until  the  platinum  becomes  white 
hot  or  about  3400°,  and  the  amount  of  electricity  used  recorded. 
The  same  thermometer  is  then  placed  at  such  a  distance  from  the 
platinum  that  it  will  register  the  same  temperature  as  before,  the 
distance  is  accurately  measured,  and  from  the  readings  of  the  ther- 
mometer, the  distances,  and  the  amount  of  current  used  the  temper- 
ature of  the  furnace  is  approximately  determined  when  is  is  so  hot 
that  it  will  fuse  every  known  substance. 

Carborundum,  or  silicide  of  carbon,  is  a  product  of  the  electric 
furnace  and  was  first  discovered  about  1890  by  E.  G.  Atchison  of 
Chicago  when  experimenting  for  the  production  of  diamonds.  He 
gave  it  the  name  "  carborundum,"  for  he  thought  he  had  produced  a 
compound  of  carbon  and  corundum,  but  chemical  analysis  shows 
that  it  is  silicon  and  carbon  with  a  trace  of  iron,  alumina,  and  lime, 
probably  impurities,  which  give  to  the  crystals  a  color  ranging  from 
nearly  white  to  deep  green  or  blue. 

The  crystals  are  almost  as  hard  as  diamonds,  insoluble  in  acids, 
and  do  not  fuse  in  a  blowpipe  flame.  They  are  commercially  valu- 
able as  abrasives,  for  one  pound  of  carborundum  will  polish  eight 
times  as  much  surface  as  the  same  weight  of  emery  and  will  do  it  in 
less  time.  Carborundum,  being  so  hard,  wears  longer  and  cuts 


ELECTRICITY.  287 

faster  than  emery,  and  carborundum  paper  is  as  much  superior  to 
emery  and  sandpaper.  Carborundum  is  used  as  a  substitute  for 
emery  wheels  and  grindstones  and  is  made  into  wheels,  whetstones, 
and  polishing  cloths. 

Carborundum  furnaces  are  of  fire  brick  and  are  usually  about 
twenty-two  feet  long,  five  feet  wide,  and  seven  feet  deep,  with  ends 
two  feet  thick.  Into  the  brickwork  of  each  end  are  built  twenty-five 
or  more  bars  of  carbon  (electrodes)  four  inches  square  and  thirty 
inches  long.  These  are  connected  by  copper  bars  with  the  cables 
containing  the  electric  current.  The  ends  and  bed  are  permanent 
but  the  side  walls  are  temporary  and  are  taken  down  each  time  the 
furnace  is  charged.  In  charging,  the  furnace  walls  are  built  up 
about  half  way  and  the  interior  filled  with  a  mixture  of  the  finest 
white  sand,  pulverized  coke,  and  coarse  salt.  An  equal  bulk  of  saw- 
dust is  added  and  when  the  current  is  turned  on  the  sawdust  burns 
away  and  leaves  the  whole  mass  porous  so  the  gas  has  a  chance  to 
escape,  a  very  necessary  measure,  for  with  all  precautions  explosions 
are  not  unknown.  A  semicircular  trough,  about  twenty-one  inches 
in  diameter  and  half  as  deep,  is  scooped  out  in  the  mixture  between 
the  electrodes  and  the  hollow  filled  with  coarser  pieces  of  coke, 
rounded  up  until  a  core  is  formed  reaching  from  one  set  of  electrodes 
to  the  other.  The  core  may  be  likened  to  the  filament  in  an  incan- 
descent lamp,  for  it  is  through  this  core  that  the  electric  current  is 
(later)  to  be  passed.  The  core  being  in  position  the  side  walls  are 
built  up  and  the  core  covered  with  more  of  the  mixture  of  sand, 
coke,  salt,  and  sawdust,  and  the  whole  packed  down. 

When  all  is  ready  the  electric  current  is  turned  on.  As  delivered 
by  the  Niagara  Power  Company  it  has  a  pressure  of  about  2200  volts', 
but  for  the  use  of  the  furnace  is  "  stepped-down  "  by  an  1 100  horse- 
power transformer  until  it  has  a  pressure  of  from  100  to  250  volts. 
About  4  per  cent,  of  power  is  lost  and  turned  into  heat  in  the  trans- 


288  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

former,  and  its  equivalent  of  44  horse-power  has  to  be  taken  care 
of  by  surrounding  the  transformer  with  a  constant  current  of  cool 
oil  to  carry  away  the  heat.  About  half  an  hour  after  the  current  is 
turned  on  gas  begins  to  appear  at  the  sides  and  top  of  the  furnace 
and  burns  with  a  bluish  flame.  It  is  estimated  that  during  the  proc- 
ess 5^  tons  of  gas  are  emitted,  hence  the  necessity  of  the  precau- 
tions to  guard  against  explosions  and  of  such  an  arrangement  of  the 
mass  as  will  take  up  shrinkage  as  it  grows  less  in  quantity. 

After  36  hours  the  current  is  shut  off  and  when  the  furnace  is  cool 
enough  the  side  walls  are  pulled  down.  All  the  impurities  having 
been  driven  out  of  the  coke  by  the  intense  heat,  it  is  left  a  mass  of 
pure  carbon  surrounded  by  a  shell,  10  or  12  inches  thick,  of  beauti- 
ful carborundum  crystals,  some  of  them  one  half  inch  on  a  side. 
Outside  the  layer  of  crystals  is  a  layer  of  partly-formed  carborundum 
and  beyond  this  the  mixture  remains  unchanged.  One  charge  with 
fair  success  yields  about  4000  pounds  of  crystals. 

The  carborundum  is  then  crushed  under  heavy  rollers  and  soaked 
in  dilute  sulphuric  acid  to  get  rid  of  the  impurities,  washed,  screened, 
and  graded  according  to  the  use  which  is  to  be  made  of  it.  If  for 
grinding  wheels,  the  material  is  mixed  with  a  kind  of  clay  and  feld- 
spar called  "kaolin,"  placed  in  molds,  subjected  to  hydraulic  pres- 
sure, baked,  trued  up,  and  tested.  The  wheels  vary  in  size  from  the 
minute  wheel  1-16  inch  thick  and  1-4  inch  in  diameter,  used  by  den- 
tists, up  to  one  6  inches  thick  and  36  inches  in  diameter  upon  which 
has  been  expended  1250  horse-power-hours  of  energy. 

The  Stassano  Process  was  one  of  the  first  attempts  to  make 
practical  application  of  the  electric  furnace  to  the  reduction  of  iron 
ore.  Some  of  the  advantages  of  such  a  process  as  at  Sault  Ste. 
Marie,  for  example,  where  nickel  and  iron  ore  are  abundant  and  close 
at  hand,  and  water  power  available,  are  easily  apparent,  for  the 
water  power  can  be  utilized  to  generate  electricity  for  the  electric 


ELECTRICITY.  289 

furnace  and  save  the  coal  used  in  ordinary  processes.  The  economy 
of  the  world's  fuel  is  an  important  subject,  for  immense  quantities 
are  now  used  annually  and  the  consumption  is  increasing  with  such 
exceeding  rapidity  that  the  world's  supply  is  plainly  not  inexhausti- 
ble. In  this  process  the  ore  is  first  roasted  and  a  definite  percent- 
age of  carbon,  calcium,  or  silicon,  according  to  the  composition 
desired,  added.  The  mixture  is  then  pulverized,  mixed  with  from 
5  per  cent,  to  10  per  cent,  of  pitch,  made  into  paste  and  pressed  into 
bricks.  The  bricks  are  placed  in  a  furnace  which  does  not  differ 
materially  from  the  ordinary  blast  furnace  except  that  there  is  an 
electric  arc  at  the  bottom  which  furnishes  the  heat,  and  the  whole 
process  of  fusing  is  about  like  that  ordinarily  practiced.  No  fuel 
except  the  pitch  employed  in  making  the  bricks  is  used,  and  about 
3000  horse-power-hours  of  energy  will  produce  a  ton  of  metal. 

Aluminum  is  also  produced  by  the  aid  of  the  electric  furnace. 
It  is  said  that  in  1883  there  were  only  83  pounds  of  aluminum  pro- 
duced by  this  method  while  in  1898  the  output  was  raised  to  more 
than  5,000,000  pounds  and  the  price  so  materially  decreased  that 
aluminum  cooking  utensils  are  now  made.  In  view  of  the  many 
absurdities  afloat  concerning  the  use  of  cheap  aluminum  for  structural 
purposes,  it  is  well  to  remember  that  aluminum  is  not  so  marvelously 
strong.  Its  tensile  strength,  square  inch  for  square  inch,  is  only 
about  the  same  as  that  of  cast  iron,  one  half  that  of  wrought  iron, 
or  one  fifth  that  of  the  best  steel.  Aluminum  is  light,  and,  taking  its 
specific  gravity  as  a  unit,  steel  is  2.95  times,  brass  3.45  times,  cop- 
per 3.6  times,  and  lead  4.8  times  as  heavy.  A  bar  of  aluminum 
shows  an  ultimate  tensile  strength  of  about  28,000  pounds  per  square 
inch;  a  bar  of  the  best  steel  of  the  same  diameter  shows  a  tensile 
strength  of  more  than  150,000  pounds  per  square  inch,  so  that  not 
only  section  for  section  but  weight  for  weight  aluminum  is  inferior 
in  tensile  strength  to  steel. 


290          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

Electroplating  is  another  practical  application  of  electricity. 
Daniell  is  said  to  have  noticed  that  the  copper  deposited  on  the  cop- 
per plate  in  his  voltaic  cell  reproduced  even  the  minutest  scratches 
on  the  plate,  and  his  discovery  has  been  called  the  beginning  of  the 
art  of  electroplating.  In  1838  Jacobi  described  the  principles  to  a 
scientific  society  of  St.  Petersburg,  and  in  1839  'm  a  letter  to  Fara- 
day told  how  he  obtained  copper  plates  which  were  exact  copies  of 
the  medals  or  designs  from  which  they  had  been  taken.  However, 
the  early  history  of  electroplating  is  enveloped  in  considerable  dis- 
pute. It  has  been  claimed  that  it  originated  with  Volta  and  Wollas- 
ton,  that  in  1805  Brugnatelli,  a  pupil  of  Volta,  gilded  two  large  sil- 
ver medals,  and  that  in  1834  Sir  Henry  Bessemer  electroplated  lead 
castings  with  copper.  A  knowledge  of  it  has  even  been  ascribed  to 
the  Egyptians.  In  the  temples  and  tombs  of  Thebes  and  Memphis, 
vases  and  urns  have  been  found  bearing  a  plating  of  copper  which 
presents  to  the  microscope  the  appearance  of  galvanic  deposits. 

If  two  clean  pieces  of  metal,  as  platinum,  be  put  in  a  solution  of 
copper  sulphate  and  a  current  of  electricity  sent  through  them  cop- 
per will  be  deposited  upon  the  negative  or  cathode  pole,  i.  e.,  the 
pole  by  which  the  current  leaves  the  solution.  By  maintaining  the 
strength  of  the  solution  and  keeping  up  the  current,  a  plating  of 
any  desired  thickness  may  be  deposited  which  when  removed  will 
give  an  exact  reproduction  of  the  original.  In  taking  an  impression 
of  a  medal,  it  is  given  a  coating  of  varnish,  shellac,  or  sealing  wax, 
covering  all  except  the  portion  to  be  copied,  placed  in  the  bath  as  a 
cathode  pole,  and  the  current  of  electricity  turned  on.  An  inverted 
impression  is  produced  from  which  a  direct  copy  can  be  made  by  the 
same  process.  In  ordinary  practice  it  is  customary  to  reproduce  a 
design  by  making  a  mold  from  plaster  of  paris,  moldine,  or  some 
similar  substance,  brushing  it  over  with  black  lead  to  render  it  a  con- 
ductor of  electricity,  and  from  this  mold  an  exact  reproduction  of  the 
original  design  can  be  obtained. 


ELECTRICITY.  29 1 

Electroplating  is  much  used  in  making  plates  for  bookwork,  for 
electrotypes  give  better  and  sharper  impressions  than  stereotypes. 
A  wax  mold  made  from  the  engraving  or  page  of  type  is  brushed 
over  with  powdered  graphite  to  render  it  a  good  conductor  and  cop- 
per then  deposited  by  the  ordinary  method  of  electroplating.  Fine 
iron  filings  can  be  dusted  on  the  wet  graphite  surface  of  the  mold 
and  the  solution  of  copper  sulphate  poured  upon  it  and  gently  stirred 
with  a  soft  brush.  A  film  of  copoer  is  almost  immediately  formed 
over  the  entire  surface,  for  the  acid  unites  with  the  iron  to  form 
sulphate  of  iron,  and  deposits  the  copper. 

In  electroplating  where  the  jobs  are  of  considerable  magnitude 
sheets  of  wax  are  run  through  a  shaving  machine  which  produces  a 
sheet  of  uniform  thickness.  The  surface  of  the  sheet  is  rubbed  with 
graphite  dust  to  prevent  it  from  sticking  to  the  type  01  the  engrav- 
ing and  the  type  or  engraving  also  dusted  with  graphite  is  forced 
into  the  sheet  to  the  desired  depth.  The  mold  is  removed,  the 
blank  places  built  up  with  hot  wax  so  that  those  surfaces  will  not 
touch  the  paper  in  printing,  the  mold  again  dusted  with  graphite  and 
the  iron  filings  applied,  great  care  being  taken  to  see  that  the  whole 
surface  of  the  mold  is  covered.  It  is  then  used  as  a  cathode  pole 
in  a  bath  of  copper  sulphate  and  left  there  until  a  deposit  of  copper 
is  formed  thick  enough  so  it  can  be  taken  off  and  laid  face  down  on 
a  plane  surface.  The  back  of  the  copper  sheet  is  next  brushed  over 
with  a  solution  of  chloride  of  zinc,  and  sheets  of  tin  foil  are  laid  on 
and  melted  and  molten  type  metal  poured  on  until  the  plate  has  been 
given  a  thickness  of  about  one  eighth  inch.  Plates  can  be  coated 
with  a  solution  of  iron  almost  as  hard  as  steel,  making  them  very 
durable,  and  in  Europe  this  method  is  employed  with  excellent  re- 
sults to  make  plates  for  printing  bank  notes. 

The  same  principles  are  employed  in  gold,  silver,  and  nickel 
plating,  and  the  process  has  been  brought  to  such  a  degree  of  perfec- 


292          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM 

tion  that  silk,  laces,  fruit,  and  flowers  even  have  been  plated.  The 
method  has  greatly  reduced  the  cost  of  books,  maps,  medals,  and 
similar  designs,  for  the  original  design  can  be  preserved  and  electro- 
types made  from  it  as  often  as  required,  each  of  which  is  an  exact 
reproduction  of  the  original. 

It  has  been  a  boon  to  mankind  by  saving  many  human  lives,  for 
prior  to  the  discovery  of  electroplating  one  of  the  methods  of  gilding 
was  to  dissolve  gold  in  mercury  until  a  paste  was  formed,  apply  the 
paste  with  a  brush  to  the  article  to  be  gilded,  then  heat  it  in  an  oven 
to  evaporate  the  mercury,  leaving  the  gold  to  adhere.  This  method 
was  attended  with  fearful  mortality  for  the  fumes  of  the  mercury 
killed  off  the  workmen  rapidly. 

An  electric  cartridge,  designed  as  a  substitute  for  dynamite  and 
smokeless  powder  in  the  mines,  has  been  invented  by  an  Italian  elec- 
trician. He  uses  carbonates  of  potash  and  chloride  of  ammonia  and 
causes  the  explosion  by  the  electrolytic  effect  a  current  of  electricity 
has  upon  those  chemicals.  One  advantage  claimed  for  the  cartridge 
is  that  it  is  perfectly  safe  and  inert  until  acted  upon  by  the  electric 
current,  so  there  is  no  danger  connected  with  its  handling,  neither 
are  isolated  magazines  necessary  for  its  storage. 

The  storage  battery,  secondary  battery,  or  accumulator,  as  it  is 
variously  called,  plays  an  important  part  in  the  economy  of  electric 
power  and  is  largely  responsible  for  the  increasing  use  of  electricity. 
In  the  chain  formed  by  the  steam  engine,  the  dynamo,  and  the  stor- 
age battery,  the  dynamo  takes  the  mechanical  energy  from  the  steam 
engine,  turns  it  into  electricity,  sends  it  into  the  storage  battery,  and 
by  its  electrolytic  action  builds  up  certain  chemical  compounds  in 
the  batteries,  so  unstable  that  they  seem  to  unite  under  compulsion 
and  fly  apart  whenever  an  opportunity  is  given  them.  The  energy 
will  remain  in  the  form  stored  until  the  poles  of  the  battery  are  con- 
nected, but  when  connected  in  a  circuit  the  compounds  are  disasso- 


ELECTRICITY.  293 

ciated  and  the  same  electrical  energy  produced  with  which  the 
battery  was  charged  less  the  losses  inseparably  connected  with  the 
transformation  of  force. 

The  difficulty  encountered  by  investigators  in  "polarization  of 
cells"  has  been  mentioned.  In  1801  Gautherot,  a  French  scientist, 
remarked  that  if  a  polarized  cell  was  allowed  to  rest  and  afterward 
connected,  a  feeble  current  was  set  up  in  the  opposite  direction. 

In  1812  Ritter  constructed  a  secondary  pile  made  of  alternate 
discs  of  copper  and  moistened  cardboard,  from  which  when  charged 
by  a  voltaic  pile  he  drew  electricity. 

The  first  storage  battery  of  commercial  importance  was  con- 
structed by  Gaston  Plante,  in  1860,  who  rolled  two  lead  plates  sep- 
arated by  a  heavy  piece  of  cloth  into  the  form  of  a  cylinder  and 
immersed  them  in  a  10  per  cent,  solution  of  sulphuric  acid.  A  cur- 
rent of  electricity  was  sent  through  them  for  several  hours  and  the 
usual  chemical  changes  due  to  electrolysis  occurred,  an  oxide  of  lead 
forming  at  the  pole  where  the  current  entered  and  a  spongy  deposit 
of  lead  at  the  other  pole.  When  the  current  was  stopped  and  the 
poles  of  the  battery  were  connected,  a  decided  current  appeared 
having  the  opposite  direction.  The  name  "storage  battery"  is  not 
really  a  good  one  for  it  does  not  work  like  a  voltaic  cell  but  rather 
like  a  clock  spring,  which,  being  wound  up  by  the  power  of  the  cur- 
rent sent  from  the  dynamo,  relieves  itself  of  the  tension  at  the  first 
opportunity  and  discharges  very  nearly  as  much  energy  as  was  re- 
quired to  charge  it. 

In  1880  Camille  A.  Faure  made  an  important  improvement  in 
storage  batteries  by  substituting  lead  plates  covered  with  the  higher 
and  lower  oxides  of  lead  instead  of  the  plain  lead  sheets  of  the  Plante 
system  and  saved  the  battery  the  work  of  making  its  own  oxides. 
Many  minor  improvements  have  been  made  since  then,  consisting 
chiefly  in  alloying  the  plates  with  bismuth  and  giving  them  a  spongy 


294 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


cellular  structure  so  as  to  hold  the  greatest  amount  of  red  lead  with 
the  least  amount  of  weight. 

The  use  of  storage  batteries  has  doubled  every  year  for  the 
past  decade,  and  a  single  concern  (The  Electric  Storage  Battery 
Company)  turns  out  in  one  year  batteries  to  the  value  of  $2,387,- 


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ELECTRIC  STORAGE  BATTERY,  SHOWING  CONSTRUCTION. 

049.91.  They  make  batteries  which  are  remarkably  light  and  effi- 
cient. The  sheets  are  made  from  a  combination  of  lead  and  zinc 
chlorides  and  are  cut  into  ribbons  one  fourth  inch  wide.  The  positive 
plates  (grids)  are  made  with  circular  holes,  into  each  of  which  is  forced 


ELECTRICITY. 


295 


a  spiral  coil  of  the  ribbon.  The  grid  is  then  exposed  to  chemical 
action  which  removes  the  zinc  and  produces  lead  oxide  and  metallic 
lead  in  so  porous  a  form  as  to  expose  a  great  surface  to  the  action  of 
the  battery  fluid.  The  negative  grids  are  made  with  square  holes 
and  filled  with  solid  lead.  The  cells,  each  containing  one  more  neg- 
ative than  positive  element,  are  set  in  tanks  made  either  of  glass, 


.MINUTES 

FIGURE  i. 

hard  rubber,  or  sheet  lead  resting  on  carefully  insulated  supports. 
Such  batteries  when  charged  are  used  by  merely  switching  them  into 
line  where  the  power  is  needed. 

Storage  batteries  are  especially  economical  for  small  street  car 
lines  where  at  one  time  nearly  all  the  cars  may  be  at  a  standstill, 
making  almost  no  demand  on  the  power  plant,  and  the  next  instant 
ail  in  motion  and  perhaps  climbing  heavy  grades,  and  testing  the 


296          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM 

highest  efficiency  of  the  generator.  Before  storage  batteries  were 
used  to  supplement  the  engines,  the  power  plant  had  to  be  equal  to 
any  emergency,  necessitating  the  use  of  engines  almost  continuously 
producing  as  much  power  as  would  be  required  at  any  instant.  Now 
smaller  engines  costing  less  both  to  purchase  and  operate  are  used 
with  storage  batteries.  The  batteries  are  charged  when  the  load  on 
the  engine  is  light  and  drawn  upon  for  reserve  when  the  temporary 
demands  are  greater  than  the  engines  can  supply. 

Reference  to  Figure  i  shows  plainly  the  Economy.  The  ir- 
regular lines  show  the  actual  electric  current  required  and  the  actual 
current  developed  in  five  minutes  at  an  electric  railway  power  house. 
The  upper  line  shows  the  power  used  by  the  cars.  The  first  minute 
started  with  100  amperes,  rose  rapidly  to  more  than  150,  sank  to 
nearly  50,  rose  in  sparks  to  almost  250  and  fell  back  to  10.  During 
the  first  10  seconds  of  the  second  minute  the  demand  rose  from  10 
amperes  to  nearly  250,  as  is  shown  by  the  straight  peak,  and  aver- 
aged high  for  the  whole  minute.  It  is  evident  that  such  extreme 
fluctuations  would  be  a  severe  strain  on  the  engines.  Let  us  look 

o 

at  the  power  line.  Aided  by  the  storage  batteries,  the  demands  on 
the  generator  ran  pretty  steadily  with  little  fluctuations  from  75  to 
80  amperes,  for  the  batteries  took  care  of  the  sudden  demands  for 
power. 

A  steam  engine  works  most  economically  when  a  small  amount  of 
steam  can  be  admitted  to  the  cylinder  at  each  stroke  and  allowed  to 
expand.  When  great  demands  are  made  on  the  engine  more  steam 
is  admitted,  but  the  engine  then  works  by  direct  pressure  from  the 
boiler,  which  is  not  an  economical  method,  for  the  steadier  the  load 
the  more  economically  can  the  engine  be  operated. 

In  Figure  2  the  middle  curve  shows  the  variations  in  the  current 
required  to  operate  a  street  car  line  for  five  seconds.  If  a  dynamo 
alone  were  to  supply  the  energy  it  would  need  to  be  capable  of 


ELECTRICITY. 


297 


furnishing  enough  power  to  safely  cover  the  highest  peak,  or  more 
than  300  amperes,  and  when  the  line  required  less  than  the  greatest 
amount  there  would  be  power  going  to  waste.  Here  is  where  the 
storage  battery  comes  into  play.  The  upper  curve  in  Figure  2  is 
almost  like  the  middle  curve,  but  through  it  runs  the  line  marked 


FIGURE  2. 

"o,"  which  represents  the  average  load.  When  the  demands  for 
power  are  above  this  line  the  battery  takes  care  of  them.  When 
the  demands  are  for  less  than  an  average  load  the  battery  is  being 
charged  while  the  engines  are  kept  running  pretty  steadily,  as  shown 
by  the  lower  curve,  relying  on  the  battery  to  take  care  of  sudden 
demands  for  power  and  to  store  up  energy  when  the  load  is  less  than 
the  average. 


298  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

During  the  course  of  the  day  the  batteries  receive  enough  cur- 
rent at  odd  times  so  that  in  some  plants  the  engines  can  be  shut 
down  at  midnight  and  not  started  until  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
the  batteries  carrying  all  the  night  load.  This  gives  the  engines  a 
much  needed  rest  for  inspection,  repairs,  etc.  In  many  electric 
lighting  plants  the  engines  are  run  only  from  4  P.  M.  until  midnight, 
the  batteries  supplying  all  the  lights  used  after  that  hour  and  through 
the  day. 

In  large  street  railway  and  lighting  systems  it  is  economical  to 
produce  all  the  power  at  one  central  power  plant,  but  cables  large 
enough  to  carry  the  amount  of  current  demanded  at  the  extreme 
ends  of  the  lines  are  expensive  and  may  cost  from  $i  to  $2  a  foot. 
By.  installing  storage  batteries  at  points  near  the  ends  of  the  line  a 
surplus  of  power  is  there  held  in  reserve  equal  to  any  sudden  demand 
that  may  be  made  upon  it. 

Hotels  and  apartment  houses  frequently  maintain  a  private 
power  plant  for  lighting  and  elevator  service.  When  the  current  for 
the  elevator  is  taken  directly  from  the  generator,  the  supply  for  the 
lights  varies  so  much  that  the  continual  fluctuation  caused  is  seri- 
ously objectionable.  In  such  a  plant  as  that  of  the  Waldorf-Astoria 
Hotel,  where  there  are  27,000  electric  lights  and  21  electric  elevators, 
this  is  an  important  consideration.  A  storage  battery  in  such  cases 
supplies  the  sudden  demands  of  the  elevator,  furnishes  a  steady 
current  for  the  lighting  system,  and  economizes  by  equalizing  the 
load  on  the  engines  and  shortening  the  necessary  running  time. 

For  automobiles  and  for  propulsion  and  for  lighting  small  boats 
such  batteries  are  especially  well  suited,  as  they  are  noiseless,  pro- 
duce no  smoke,  dirt,  or  odor,  and  their  weight  in  a  boat  carrying  bal- 
last to  preserve  its  center  of  gravity  is  no  objection,  for  the  storage 
batteries  can  be  substituted  in  part  for  the  ballast. 

In  reducing  aluminum  by  the  aid   of  electricity  Targe  iron  vats 


ELECTRICITY. 


299 


lined  with  carbon  are  employed.  Over  each  vat  is  a  framework 
through  which  project  numerous  large  carbon  rods  about  20  inches 
long  and  2  y2  inches  in  diameter.  The  vats  are  filled  with  alumina, 
an  oxide  of  aluminum,  together  with  certain  other  materials,  an'd  the 
electric  current  is  turned  on.  A  large  current  of  a  low  voltage  is 
employed  and  the  heat  evolved  is  used  only  to  melt  the  materials, 
for  the  electricity  does  its  work  in  this  case  by  its  electrolytic  action. 
The  oxygen  set  free  is  thrown  off  as  a  gas  and  the  metallic  aluminum 
in  a  melted  state  sinks  to  the  bottom  of  the  tank  and  is  dipped  out 
by  large  iron  ladles  and  poured  into  molds.  The  current,  usually 
not  exceeding  seven  or  eight  volts,  is  not  dangerous  to  the  person, 
for  the  human  body  is  such  a  poor  conductor  that  it  is  able  to  resist 
such  a  current,  just  as  a  thin  armor  might  repel  a  light,  slow  moving 
projectile,  but  be  pierced  by  one  of  a  higher  velocity. 

Calcium  carbide  is  another  important  product  of  the  electric  fur- 
nace. It  is  a  compound  of  carbon  and  calcium,  a  white  metal,  not 
found  in  a  natural  state  but  existing  chiefly  in  the  form  of  carbonate 
of  lime.  Unslaked  lime  is  ground  into  fine  powder,  then  mixed  with 
powdered  coke  or  carbon  in  such  a  proportion  that  when  the  union 
takes  place  one  atom  of  calcium  will  unite  with  two  atoms  of  carbon 
and  form  calcium  carbide.  (Ca  C2.)  The  mixture  is  then  put  into  a 
crucible  in  which  is  a  powerful  electric  arc,  which  melts  the  mixture, 
throws  off  the  oxygen,  and  unites  the  calcium  and  carbon.  Calcium 
carbide  is  used  to  generate  acetylene  gas  in  large  quantities.  The 
gas  is  composed  of  two  atoms  of  carbon  and  two  atoms  of  hydrogen 
(C2  H2)  and  when  water  is  added  to  calcium  carbide  it  decomposes 
the  water  and  the  carbon  and  the  hydrogen  unite,  forming  acetylene 
gas  and  leaving  a  residuum  of  slacked  lime. 

Electricity  half  a  century  ago  was  practically  applied  only  in  the 
telegraph.  To-day  the  world  would  seem  lost  without  it.  In  that 
familiar  illustration,  the  street  car,  we  find  it  performing  three  dif- 


300  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

ferent  kinds  of  work ;  heating,  lighting,  and  propelling.  A  quarter 
of  a  century  ago  it  was  just  making  its  appearance  in  the  commercial 
world  as  a  motive  power  and  to-day  it  is  a  rival  of  steam.  However, 
it  can  rarely  be  independent  of  the  black  slave,  coal.  In  lands 
where  coal  is  expensive  and  water  power  abundant  and  cheap  it  can 
compete  with  the  steam  engine,  but  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
electricity  is  simply  a  form  of  energy  which  must  be  paid  for.  The 
best  dynamos  working  under  a  full  load  are  capable  of  turning  into 
electricity  95  per  cent,  of  the  power  applied  to  them.  This  if  sent 
through  a  wire  for  a  considerable  distance  will  lose  in  the  wire  from 
5  per  cent,  upward.  If  transformers  are  used  to  step-up  or  step- 
down  the  current,  a  loss  is  sustained  thereby ;  the  electric  motor 
which  takes  the  current  and  turns  it  into  mechanical  energy  is  about 
as  efficient  as  the  dynamo,  so  another  loss  of  5  per  cent,  occurs.  It 
is  probable  that  some  means  of  conducting  electricity  for  long  dis- 
tances without  such  great  waste  will  eventually  be  devised,  every 
waterfall  harnessed,  its  power  turned  into  electricity  and  conveyed 
where  it  can  turn  motors  not  only  to  run  the  usual  machinery  but  to 
cool  rooms,  bake  bread,  run  sewing  machines,  and  perform  the  thou- 
sand and  one  other  things  connected  with  the  laborof  the  household. 
The  steam  engine  can  turn  into  electricity  only  about  15  per 
cent,  of  the  power  latent  within  the  coal,  and  a  fortune  awaits  the  man 
who  can  utilize  the  large  margin  wasted  and  turn  coal  directly  into 
electricity.  Chemists  have  demonstrated  that  it  is  possible  but  have 
been  unable  to  perform  it  profitably.  However,  electricity  has  made 
such  rapid  strides  that  at  the  close  of  the  century  it  was  estimated 
that  in  the  United  States  the  capitalization  in  electrical  appliances 
was  about  equal  to  the  national  debt. 


IRON  AND  STEEL  WORKING. 

Iron  Ore,  how  mined,  transported,  and  smelted  —  Steel  and  Its  Relation  to  Modern 
Progress  —  Crucible  Process  —  Bessemer  Process  —  Open-Hearth  Process  —  Advantages 
of  Each  Process  —  How  Steel  Castings  are  Made — Alloys —  Testing  Machines  —  First  Iron 
Works  in  America  —  First  Iron  Works  in  Canada  —  Ore  Deposits  of  Canada  and  Newfound- 
land—  Iron  and  Steel  Production  of  the  World  —  Bridges  —  Reasons  for  High  Buildings 
and  How  they  are  Built. 

A  A  T'HEN  primitive  man  subjugated  fire  he  achieved  a  great  victory 
over  natural  forces,  but  when  he  applied  its  magic  touch  to 
the  dull  sodden  mass  of  iron  ore  that  lay  hidden  in  the  bog  or  on 
the  mountain  side,  he  laid  the  corner  stone  of  the  foundation  upon 
which  the  structure  of  our  civilization  is  reared.  No  other  discov- 
ery has  been  so  beneficial  to  man  as  the  mastery  of  iron  and  its 
derivative,  steel.  If  the  statement  seems  strong,  picture  society  with 
those  metals  removed.  With  them  would  vanish  the  railroad,  the 
steamship,  the  steam  engine,  the  telegraph,  the  telephone,  mills, 
factories,  firearms,  agricultural  machinery,  all  tools  with  cutting 
edges,  the  instruments  of  the  astronomer,  the  chemist,  the  surgeon, 
and  the  whole  fabric  of  civilization  reared  by  the  rise  of  intelligence 
above  brute  force. 

The  early  ages  of  antiquity  have  been  commonly  divided  into 
the  stone,  bronze,  and  iron,  but  some  metallurgists  think  that  iron 
should  take  precedence  over  bronze  and  encourage  the  supposition 
that  bronze  was  a  substitute  for  rather  than  a  forerunner  of  iron. 


302  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

An  eminent  English  metallurgist  says,  "  It  has  always  appeared 
to  me  reasonable  to  infer  from  metallurgic  considerations  that  the 
age  of  iron  would  have  preceded  the  age  of  bronze.  The  primitive 
method,  not  yet  wholly  extinct,  of  extracting  iron  from  its  ores,  is  a 
much  simpler  process  than  that  of  producing  bronze  and  indicates  a 
much  less  advanced  state  of  the  metallurgic  arts.  In  the  case  of  iron 
all  that  is  necessary  is  to  heat  the  ore  strongly  in  contact  with  char- 
coal ;  whereas,  in  the  case  of  bronze,  which  is  an  alloy  of  copper  and 
tin,  both  copper  and  tin  have  to  be  obtained  by  smelting  their 
respective  ores  separately  to  be  subsequently  melted  together  in  due 
proportion  and  the  resulting  alloy  to  be  cast  in  molds  requiring  con- 
siderable skill  in  their  preparation."  * 

The  Scriptures  ascribe  the  working  of  iron  to  Tubal-cain,  and 
it  is  certain  that  it  was  known  to  the  Assyrians  and  Egyptians  at  a 
very  early  period  in  the  history  of  the  world.  The  Israelites  labored 
in  iron  furnaces  under  their  Egyptian  taskmasters,  and  since  iron  ore 
is  not  found  within  the  borders  of  Egypt  it  speaks  volumes  for  the 
civilization  and  commerce  of  a  country  that  could  at  that  age  gather 
the  ores  from  a  distance. 

Rich  iron  ore  is  now  found  in  Algeria  near  the  site  of  ancient 
Carthage,  and  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  Carthaginians  a 
thousand  years  before  Christ  were  not  behind  their  Egyptian  neigh- 
bors in  the  knowledge  of  the  use  and  manufacture  of  iron  Chinese 
literature  says  that  it  was  known  in  that  country  two  thousand  years 
before  Christ,  and  in  that  other  cradle  of  early  civilization,  the  Val- 
ley of  the  Euphrates,  iron  ore  of  considerable  richness  is  yet  found. 
It  seems  but  characteristic  of  England  that  at  the  advent  of  the 
Christian  era,  English  ships  were  carrying  English  iron  to  conti- 
nental markets. 

It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  article  to  take  up  the  history  of 

*  Dr.  John  Percy. 


IRON   AND    STEEL    WORKING.  303 

iron,  but  rather  to  trace  it  as  it  comes  from  the  mine  until  it  appears 
as  a  finished  product  applied  to  the  service  of  man.  The  Lake 
Superior  district  has  been  selected  for  description  because  the  meth- 
ods of  mining,  handling  and  transportation  there  employed  repre- 
sent the  very  acme  of  scientific  organization. 

Lake  Superior  Iron  Ore.  Perhaps  the  richest  iron  deposits  in 
the  world  are  found  surrounding  Lake  Superior.  The  strata  there 
make  a  great  dip  and  the  lake  occupies  the  depression,  the  bottom 
of  it  being  406  feet  below  sea  level.  The  ore  appears  on  both 
sides  of  the  lake,  but  the  beds  on  the  northern  side  are  deeper  than 
on  the  southern  side  and  are  not  yet  much  worked.  Those  on  the 
southern  side  may  be  divided  into  five  districts.  The  first,  at 
Marquette,  Michigan,  was  opened  in  1845  and  the  ore  was  re- 
duced in  local  forges,  the  adjacent  forests  furnishing  cheap  charcoal 
used  in  the  process;  but  with  the  increasing  demands  for  iron  and 
the  change  from  the  charcoal  to  the  coke  process  it  became  cheaper 
to  ship  it  to  blast  furnaces  situated  near  coal  mines,  and  in  1856  the 
first  important  movement  toward  the  furnaces  of  Pennsylvania  began, 
5000  tons  of  ore  being  shipped  that  year. 

The  second  district,  that  of  Menominee,  Michigan,  was  discovered 
about  1848,  but  no  considerable  shipments  were  made  from  it  until 
1880.  The  Gogebic  district  lies  both  in  Michigan  and  Wisconsin 
and  was  discovered  about  the  time  of  the  preceding  and  opened  in 
1884.  The  Vermilion  range  of  Minnesota  was  discovered  in  1866 
and  by  1884  was  in  full  operation. 

The  richest  district  and  most  easily  accessible  ore  is  also  in 
Minnesota  and  is  known  as  the  Missabi  range.  A  little  ore  was 
obtained  from  this  range  in  1850,  but  the  mines  were  not  systemati- 
cally developed  until  1892.  Now  the  output  from  that  district 
exceeds  that  of  the  others  combined,  and  in  1899  it  was  estimated 
that  there  was  in  sight,  in  the  Missabi  district  alone,  no  less  than 


304         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

400,000,000  tons  of  ore  that  needed  only  to  be  shoveled  into  the  cars. 
"  Among  the  movements  of  raw  materials  in  the  commercial  organ- 
ization of  iron  and  steel  manufacture  the  most  noteworthy  in  the 
amount  of  materials  handled,  in  the  methods  of  handling  them,  and 
in  the  scope  of  the  mark  reached  by  them  is  the  movement  of  iron 
ores  from  the  territory  along  the  western  and  southern  shores  of 
Lake  Superior  to  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie  and  thence  to 
the  furnaces  of  Western  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  where  the  coal 
deposits  lie.  This  movement  is  in  fact  the  most  important  feature 
in  the  American  ore  trade  as  well  as  one  of  the  conspicuous  features 
of  the  internal  commerce  of  the  whole  country.  From  mine  to 
furnace  the  ore  is  carried  from  800  to  1000  miles  in  barges  and  ves- 
sels, carrying  from  7000  to  9000  tons  of  ore  each,  at  the  rate  of  more 
than  3,000,000  tons  per  month."  This  ore  is  moved  at  a  fuel  cost 
of  about  Y?  ounce  of  coal  per  ton-mile  and  at  a  speed  of  10  miles  an 
hour,  while,  according  to  the  War  Department  reports,  the  average 
cost  for  five  years  of  moving  a  ton  of  freight  a  mile  on  the  Great 
Lakes  has  been  less  than  one  tenth  of  a  cent,  and  for  1898  the  cost  was 
.79  of  a  mill.  There  is  probably  no  other  similar  freight  movement 
in  the  world,  for  the  iron  ore  alone  that  passes  through  the  canals  at 
Sault  Ste.  Marie  is  greater  than  the  net  tonnage  of  the  Suez  Canal, 
and  both  in  point  of  magnitude  and  in  method  of  handling  it  well 
represents  the  highest  excellence  in  mine  management  and  water 
transportation.  In  1899  the  iron  ore  output  of  the  world  was  84,064,- 
ooo  tons,  of  which  the  Lake  Superior  district  produces  18,251,804 
tons  or  nearly  22  per  cent,  of  the  total  production  of  the  world. 

"  In  this  age  of  engineering  and  industrial  marvels  nothing  is 
more  striking  than  the  methods  employed  in  the  transportation  of 
iron  ore  from  the  mines  in  the  district  surrounding  Lake  Superior 
to  the  furnaces  in  the  Mahoning  Valley  and  the  vicinity  of  Pitts- 
burg.  Almost  every  link  in  the  whole  system  is  unique.  Nowhere 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  305 

else  in  the  world  is  freight  moved  so  cheaply  as  on  the  Great  Lakes, 
and  nowhere  else  are  cargoes  transferred  from  cars  to  ships  and  from 
ships  to  cars  with  such  rapidity.  The  whole  plan  of  handling  iron 
ore  from  the  time  it  is  taken  from  the  ground  until  its  conversion 
into  pig  iron  has,  by  reason  of  the  economy  of  time  and  money 
involved,  excited  the  admiration  of  the  great  numbers  of  foreign 
engineers  who  have  within  the  past  few  years  visited  the  lake  dis- 
trict, and  has  been  one  of  the  principal  factors  in  introducing  a 
proper  appreciation  of  the  possibilities  of  American  competition  in 
the  future."  * 

There  are  four  systems  of  mining  in  general  use  in  the  Lake 
Superior  districts;  namely,  overhead  stoping,  caving,  milling,  and 
steam  shoveling.  In  overhead  stoping  a  shaft  (tunnel)  is  sunk  into 
the  rock  underlying  the  vein  of  ore  but  always  with  a  firm  wall  of 
rock  between  it  and  the  deposit  of  ore.  The  ore  is  found  in  veins 
between  strata  of  rock  and  the  strata  and  veins  do  not  run  horizon- 
tally but  dip,  and  as  the  shaft  runs  parallel  with  the  vein  it  is  always 
at  a  slant.  One  of  these  shafts,  21  feet  wide  and  7  feet  high,  has 
already  reached  a  depth  of  more  than  1000  feet,  but  the  shaft  is  not 
pushed  any  faster  than  the  removal  of  the  ore  requires. 

When  a  shaft  has  reached  the  proper  depth,  usually  62  feet  below 
the  top  of  the  ore  to  be  removed,  a  horizontal  "heading  "  or  gallery 
is  driven  through  the  rock  wall  between  the  shaft  and  the  vein  of  ore 
and  through  the  ore  to  the  rock  on  the  opposite  side.  In  this  main 
heading  a  number  of  cross  headings  12  feet  long  are  driven  at  right 
angles  to  the  main  heading.  This  maps  out  a  block  of  ore  62  feet 
high,  24  feet  wide,  and  as  long  as  the  vein  is  thick.  The  miners, 
beginning  at  the  bottom  of  the  62-foot  block,  remove  the  ore  with 
picks  and  throw  it  behind  them,  from  whence  it  is  carried  away  or 
left  to  form  a  basis  for  other  workmen  to  stand  on  and  attack  the 

*  Waldon  Faucett  in  the  Engineering  and  Mining  Journal. 


306  MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

wall  of  ore  at  a  greater  height.  As  fast  as  the  ore  is  removed  heavy 
timbers  are  placed  in  position  to  sustain  the  overlying  mass  and  pre- 
vent caving  in.  A  good  illustration  of  the  whole  operation  would  be 
to  suppose  gangs  of  men  working  on  the  under  side  of  a  gigantic 
stairway  of  ore,  a  crew  of  men  digging  away  at  the  back  of  each 
step.  When  the  block  has  been  worked  out,  one  of  the  short  head- 
ings is  pushed  out  on  one  side  an  additional  twenty-four  feet,  the  ore 
overlying  it  left  as  a  pillar  to  help  hold  up  the  roof,  and  another 
block  or  room  like  the  first  is  worked  out  beyond  it 

When  the  two  rooms  separated  by  the  pillar  of  ore  have  been 
worked  out  the  timber  is  collapsed  by  dynamite  and  the  pillar  of  ore 
worked  out  by  the  caving  method.  The  shaft  is  then  sunk  sixty-two 
feet  further  and  the  operations  repeated  until  such  a  depth  is  reached 
that  the  difficulty  of  pumping  out  the  water  which  floods  the  mine 
renders  further  work  unprofitable. 

The  caving  system  is  a  safer  method  than  overhead  stoping 
because  the  timber  supports  are  never  more  than  seven  feet  high  as 
against  the  sixty-two  feet  in  overhead  stoping.  In  the  caving  sys- 
tem a  vertical  shaft  is  sunk  into  the  rock  to  the  depth  of  100  feet 
just  outside  the  body  of  ore.  At  the  bottom  of  the  shaft  a  heading 
is  driven  through  the  rock  and  ore  from  which  a  system  of  horizontal 
headings  branch  out  until  enough  surface  has  been  covered  to  furnish 
all  the  ore  that  can  be  profitably  hoisted  through  one  shaft.  After 
the  headings  are  finished  the  miners  begin  at  regular  intervals  along 
them  and  dig  holes  resembling  wells,  only  they  are  commenced  at  the 
bottom  and  progress  vertically  until  they  reach  the  top  of  the  body 
of  ore.  These  wells  are  called  "  rises"  and  are  about  3^  feet  wide, 
7  feet  long,  and  as  deep  as  the  mass  of  ore  blocked  out,  usually  100 
feet.  Each  rise  contains  a  ladder-way  and  a  "chute."  On  reach- 
ing the  top  of  the  body  of  ore  the  rises  are  connected  by  well  tim- 
bered tunnels  7  feet  high,  and  when  these  are  completed  a  slice 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  307 

7  feet  thick  is  taken  off  the  top  of  the  ore  bed,  thrown  down  the 
chutes,  hauled  through  the  headings  to  the  shaft,  and  hoisteT^Ko  the 
surface.  As  fast  as  the  ore  is  removed  the  overhanging  mass  of  rock 
is  supported  by  vertical  timbers  seven  feet  in  height.  When  the 
first  layer  has  been  removed  timbers  are  laid  over  the  floor  to  make 
a  solid  roof  for  the  next  slice.  Dynamite  is  exploded  under  the  sup- 
porting timbers  and  the  overlying  mass  of  rock  and  earth  sinks  seven 
feet  and  falls  upon  the  timber  floor  prepared  to  receive  it  and  act  as 
a  roof  for  the  next  operation.  So  slight  a  fall  is  not  likely  to  cause 
as  much  damage  as  the  62-foot  drop  of  the  overhead  stoping 
method.  The  miners  begin  work  under  the  timber  roof  and  remove 
another  layer  of  ore  and  repeat  the  method. 

Milling  is  a  modification  of  the  caving  system,  but  here  the 
entire  overlying  material  is  removed  or  stripped  off  and  the  miners 
at  work  on  top  of  the  ore  are  in  a  deep  pit  instead  of  a  cave  and 
have  the  advantage  of  open  air,  good  ventilation,  and  sunlight. 
There  is  no  extensive  timbering  and  the  danger  of  caving  in  except 
along  the  side  is  avoided.  The  great  expense  involved  in  removing  the 
overlying  material  if  the  ore  is  not  near  the  surface  is  the  great  draw- 
back to  this  method.  The  caving  method  is  usually  the  cheapest  and 
the  one  most  widely  used  where  deep-seated  ores  have  to  be  removed. 

The  steam  shoveling  method  is  the  most  rapid  of  all,  but  can- 
not be  used  unless  the  ore  comes  within  40  or  50  feet  of  the  surface. 
The  average  depth  of  the  Missabi  deposit  is  not  more  than  20  feet 
from  the  surface  and  excellent  drainage  can  be  secured  from  deep 
cuts.  One  layer  or  cut  taken  out  by  the  steam  shovel  lays  the  ore 
bed  bare,  and  all  that  is  then  necessary  is  to  shovel  it  directly  into 
the  cars,  for  the  ore  is  not  very  dense  and  blasting  is  not  often 
necessary.  After  the  covering  is  removed  railroad  tracks  are  built 
right  into  the  heart  of  the  deposits  and  extended  as  the  operations 
demand.  The  ore  is  usually  removed  in  steps  from  20  to  30  feet 


308  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

high,  and  on  each  step  is  laid  a  track  with  three  branches ;  one  for 
the  steam  shovel,  one  for  the  cars  being  loaded,  and  one  for  empty 
cars  and  switching,  so  that  no  time  is  lost,  for  it  is  desirable  to  keep 
the  steam  shovels  steadily  at  work. 

Description  of  the  Steam  Shovel.  The  steam  shovel  deserves  a 
few  words  of  description  for  it  performs  an  enormous  amount  of 
work,  lifting  five  tons  of  ore  at  a  stroke,  and  filling  a  2  5 -ton  car  with 
five  shovelfuls.  One  shovel  has  been  known  to  take  5825  tons  of 
ore  from  the  bed  and  load  it  on  a  car  in  one  day  of  nine  hours.  The 
car  on  which  the  machine  is  mounted  is  strong,  solid,  heavy,  and 
about  the  size  of  an  ordinary  passenger  car  and  contains  a  boiler  and 
the  engines  necessary  to  operate  the  shovel.  From  the  end  of  the 
car  projects  an  arm  at  an  angle  of  45  degrees  pivoted  so  that  it  can 
be  turned  through  three  fourths  of  a  circle.  At  the  end  of  the  arm 
is  a  movable  beam  to  the  lower  end  of  which  is  affixed  the  bucket, 
a  massive  steel  affair  resembling  a  gigantic  coal  hod.  From  the 
lower  side  of  the  open  end  of  the  bucket  project  a  number  of  great 
steel  fingers. 

In  operating,  the  shovel  is  pressed  against  the  bank  near  the  bot- 
tom and  as  the  shovel  is  drawn  against  the  bank  with  an  upward 
sweep  the  fingers  loosen  enough  ore  to  fill  the  bucket.  The  whole 
is  then  turned  on  the  pivot  until  the  bucket  hangs  over  the  car  at 
the  other  side,  a  chain  is  pulled  and  the  contents  of  the  bucket  fall 
out  through  a  trapdoor  at  the  bottom,  into  the  car.  This  shovel 
performs  the  work  formerly  done  by  men  with  wheelbarrows  and  re- 
quires ten  men  to  operate  it  and  500  pounds  of  coal  each  hour  to 
feed  the  engines,  but  it  has  reduced  the  cost  of  mining  at  the  Missabi 
range  from  $1.05  a  ton  to  20  cents  a  ton.  The  mines  are  operated 
continuously  but  the  lakes  and  canals  are  open  for  navigation  only 
seven  months  in  the  year,  so  the  winter  output  is  stacked  up  in  great 
piles  awaiting  the  opening  of  the  shipping  season. 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  309 

Special  cars  with  trapdoor  bottoms  are  used  for  hauling  the  ore. 
These  cars  are  hauled  to  the  ore  docks  on  a  trestle  over  the  ore 
pockets.  When  in  the  proper  position  the  trapdoors  are  opened  and 
in  a  twinkling  the  whole  carload  is  deposited  in  the  ore  pocket. 

Ore  docks,  especially  constructed  for  the  needs  of  the  traffic,  are 
built  at  the  water's  edge  so  that  vessels  can  come  immediately  along- 
side them.  An  ore  dock  is  in  itself  a  novel  sight,  ranging  in  length 
from  a  few  hundred  feet  to  more  than  2000  feet  and  rising  from  50 
feet  to  73  feet  above  the  water.  Two  docks  at  Duluth  are  each  2336 
feet  long  and  have  a  united  storage  capacity  of  more  than  126,000  tons 
of  ore.  The  structure  resembles  a  huge  trestle  on  top  of  which  is  laid 
a  track  for  the  ore  trains.  The  bottom  of  the  trestle  is  many  feet 
above  the  deck  of  the  ship  and  is  divided  by  partitions  into  compart- 
ments called  "pockets,"  from  each  of  which  an  inclined  "spout" 
leads  out  to  where  it  can  discharge  by  the  force  of  gravity  the  con- 
tents of  the  pocket  directly  into  the  hold  of  the  waiting  vessel. 

An  ore  fleet  of  several  hundred  vessels,  mostly  of  steel  con- 
struction, many  of  them  between  400  and  500  feet  in  length,  and 
carrying  from  5000  to  8000  tons,  takes  the  ore  from  the  Superior 
docks  and  distributes  it  among  the  southern  ports  of  Lake  Erie. 
Until  the  advent  of  the  Rockefeller  interests  in  the  iron  trade  all 
classes  of  vessels  were  pressed  into  carrying  ore,  but  now  it  is  chiefly 
carried  by  those  especially  designed  to  carry  the  greatest  weight  at 
the  least  expense  during  the  short  season.  Since  the  mines  and  the 
furnaces  must  be  kept  continuously  in  operation,  the  transportation 
facilities  must  be  able  to  carry  as  much  in  seven  months  as  the  fur- 
naces will  use  in  a  year,  and  as  all  time  not  spent  in  actual  travel  is 
so  much  time  lost,  the  loading  and  discharging  of  the  vessels  is  car- 
ried on  with  the  utmost  dispatch,  some  of  the  great  companies  even 
preferring  to  send  their  boats  back  empty,  rather  than  take  time  to 
load  them  with  coal  or  other  freight  for  the  return  trip. 


310          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

Two  types  of  vessels  have  been  evolved.  One  has  a  flat  deck 
with  the  boilers  and  engines  as  far  astern  as  possible  and  the  bridge, 
masts,  and  deck  houses  piled  up  in  the  space  forward.  All  the  in- 
tervening space  is  left  for  the  ore,  and  to  afford  easy  access  to  the 
hold,  hatchways  are  placed  with  their  centers  24  feet  apart,  nearly 
the  whole  length  of  the  deck.  These  vessels  carry  about  6000  tons 
of  ore  when  drawing  16  feet  8  inches  of  water,  no  greater  draft 
being  possible  on.  account  of  the  lack  of  water  in  the  locks  of  the 
canal  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  Whalebacks  represent  the  other  class. 
These  are  of  the  same  general  build  and  dimensions  except  that  the 
top  of  the  vessel  is  rounded,  which  saves  material,  allows  the  sea  to 
break  over  it  easily  and  is  said  to  give  a  stiffer  vessel  and  more  cargo 
room  for  the  same  weight  of  hull.-  The  whalebacks  are  usually 
operated  in  trios,  one  being  provided  with  the  engines  and  the  other 
two  taken  in  tow.  In  Rockefeller's  "  Bessemer  Fleet,"  a  single  en- 
gine is  thus  able  to  take  two  barges  in  tow,  and  steam  the  whole 
course  at  an  average  speed  of  1 1  miles  an  hour,  moving  cargoes  rep- 
resenting 20,000  tons  of  ore. 

When  an  ore  boat  arrives  empty  at  the  ore  dock  it  is  placed  so 
that  the  hatchways  are  opposite  the  alternate  ore  pockets.  Spouts 
leading  from  the  pockets  are  lowered  over  the  hatchways,  a  gate  is 
opened,  and  ihe  ore  is  precipitated  into  the  hold.  When  one  set  of 
pockets  is  emptied  the  boat  is  moved  ahead  twelve  feet  and  the  ore 
in  another  set  discharged.  All  this  time  trains  of  loaded  cars  from 
the  mines  may  be  running  on  to  the  trestle  and  discharging  their 
load  of  ore  into  the  pockets  and  so  directly  into  the  boat.  A  vessel 
can  be  loaded  at  the  rate  of  from  1000  to  1600  tons  per  hour  and  it 
is  seldom  that  a  boat  spends  more  than  two  or  three  hours  in  getting 
its  load.  The  unloading  at  the  lake  ports,  though  not  quite  so  rapid 
as  the  loading,  is  performed  without  waste  of  time. 

So  many  novel  methods  and  new  machines  have  been  introduced 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  31  I 

in  handling  ore  that  these  lake  ports  receive  frequent  visits  from  en- 
gineers from  other  parts  of  the  world  interested  in  such  subjects. 
One  of  them  says:  — 

"  The  ore  is  unloaded  on  all  of  these  docks  by  machines  of  one 
of  three  general  types;  namely,  the  whirler  or  revolving  derrick,  an 
automatic  unloader,  or  the  bridge-tramway  type  of  hoisting  and  con- 
veying machinery.  The  latter  is  in  by  far  the  most  general  use. 
The  apparatus  is  found  in  many  different  forms  but  in  all  the  gen- 
eral characteristics  are  the  same.  In  each  case  there  is  an  elevated 
bridge  or  tramway  which  spans  the  dumping  ground  or  railway 
tracks  on  which  are  the  cars  to  be  loaded.  On  this  travels  a  trolley 
to  which  is  attached  a  bucket  capable  of  holding  about  one  and  one 
half  tons  of  iron  ore.  In  some  instances  the  machine  is  operated  by 
one  engine  and  in  others  by  two,  it  being  possible  in  the  case  of  the 
latter  to  hoist  and  convey  the  buckets  simultaneously.  The  bridge 
tramways  are  frequently  built  in  plants  of  three  or  four  bridges,  each 
bridge  being  supported  in  front  by  an  independent  pier  which  per- 
mits it  to  be  moved  so  as  to  suit  the  hatches  of  a  vessel.  The  huge 
buckets  are  loaded  by  gangs  of  men  in  the  holds  of  the  vessel  and 
when  they  have  made  the  trip  along  the  tramway  the  contents  are 
discharged  automatically.  In  some  instances  round  trips  have  been 
made  from  the  hold  of  a  vessel  to  the  extreme  end  of  the  bridge  and 
back,  a  distance  of  600  feet,  in  less  than  a  minute." 

Machines  for  Handling  Ore.  "  The  machines  on  which  the  best 
records  have  been  made  are  what  are  known  as  'direct  unloaders.' 
These  machines,  instead  of  the  long  bridges,  have  bridges  of  about 
40  feet  in  length  and  aprons  which  extend  over  the  vessel  side  of 
the  dock  to  an  equal  length.  There  is  room  for  three  railroad  tracks 
under  the  cantilevers  and  two  under  the  machine,  and  yet  the  buckets 
have  to  travel  but  a  comparatively  short  distance. 

"  The  whirlers  or  revolving  derricks  are  of  the  ordinary  type,  and 


312          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

are  of  course  not  nearly  as  speedy,  while  the  automatic  unloader 
previously  mentioned  is  as  yet  too  much  of  an  experiment  to  permit 
many  predictions  regarding  its  usefulness.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  it 
is  designed  to  do  away  with  the  shoveling  of  the  ore  into  buckets 
by  men  in  the  vessel  holds.  One  of  these  machines  has  been  erected 
on  the  Carnegie  docks  at  Conneaut,  and  it  is  hoped  to  bring  it  to  a 
state  of  perfection  in  a  short  time.  It  is  now  reported  that  two 
more  of  these  machines  have  been  ordered. 

"The  automatic  unloader  consists  primarily  of  a  clam  shell  type 
of  shovel  attached  to  a  mast  which  revolves  in  a  complete  circle, 
and  in  which  an  operator  is  stationed.  The  mast  is  in  turn  attached 
to  a  walking  beam  by  which  it  may  be  lowered  through  the  hatch  of 
a  vessel.  When  the  shovel  has  been  closed  it  is  lifted  from  the  ves- 
sel and  run  back  over  the  car  into  which  the  ore  is  to  be  loaded.  It 
is  claimed  that  when  perfected  the  machine  will  handle  fully  300  tons 
of  ore  per  hour. 

"  With  the  bridge  tramway  apparatus  at  present  in  use  some 
very  surprising  records  have  been  made.  At  almost  any  of  the  Lake 
Erie  ports,  vessels  carrying  cargoes  of  from  3000  to  5000  tons  are 
unloaded  in  a  single  day,  and  next  season  it  will  be  possible  at  the 
better  equipped  docks  to  take  7000  or  8000  tons  of  ore  from  a  boat 
in  nine  or  ten  working  hours.  Some  of  the  best  records  which  have 
thus  far  been  made  are  as  follows:  4284  tons  from  the  steamer  Yale 
in  eight  and  one  half  hours;  4867  tons  from  the  barge  Aurania  in 
nine  and  one  half  hours;  5025  tons  from  the  steamer  Watt  in  nine 
hours;  5226  tons  from  the  steamer  Stephenson  in  nine  and  one 
quarter  hours,  and  5500  tons  from  the  steamer  Linn  in  nine  hours." 

The  Cantilever  Crane.  For  years  it  has  been  apparent  that  the 
ancient  wheelbarrow  method  of  unloading  iron  ore  was  wasteful, 
but  when  in  1883  Alexander  Brown  proposed  to  the  ore  men  to  do 
this  work  with  an  enormous  cantilever  crane  they  regarded  the  price 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING. 


313 


he  asked  for  his  machine  as  prohibitive,  but  with  something  of  the 
same  faith  in  his  machine  that  Watt  and  Boulton  had  in  their  engines 
when  they  offered  to  accept  in  payment  one  third  the  saving  in  coals, 
the  manufacturers  of  the  crane  agreed  to  wait  for  their  pay  until  the 
saving  in  cost  of  unloading,  over  the  wheelbarrow  method,  had 
equaled  the  price  of  the  machine.  Their  faith  was  well  founded,  for 
the  machines  were  paid  for  before  the  first  season  had  expired  and 
there  are  now  in  operation  along  the  lakes  more  than  200. 

Enormous  cranes  with  trusses  353  feet  in  length  were  used  on 
the  Chicago  drainage  canal,  where  one  machine  made  a  record  of 
handling  900  cubic  yards  of  material  in  a  day,  taking  it  from  a  chan- 
nel 36  feet  deep  and  dumping  it  on  top  of  a  bank  80  feet  high. 


THE  CANTILEVER  CRANE. 


The  cantilever  crane  is  a  huge  truss  or  beam  balanced  at  the 
middle  with  a  track  extending  the  whole  length,  on  which  a  traveler 
or  small  carriage  runs.  The  traveler  can  be  stopped  at  any  point 
and  from  it  a  pulley  with  a  wire  cable  running  through  it  can  be  raised 


3H  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

or  lowered.  To  the  pulley  can  be  attached  anything  to  be  removed, 
and  in  handling  ore  it  carries  a  large  bucket  that  holds  over  a  ton 
and  a  half. 

The  truss  rests  on  a  heavy  car  that  contains  the  machinery  for 
operating  the  whole  apparatus.  Ordinarily  a  track  parallel  with  the 
work  to  be  done  is  laid,  on  which  the  car  supporting  the  truss  runs 
back  and  forth  about  twice  as  fast  as  a  man  can  walk.  In  unloading 
ore  ships,  the  ships  tie  up  at  a  wharf  parallel  to  a  track  on  which  the 
crane  runs.  The  crane  is  brought  opposite  the  hatchway  from  which 
the  ore  is  taken.  The  traveler  is  run  out  until  it  is  over  the  hatch- 
way, a  bucket  attached  to  the  pulley  is  lowered,  filled  with  one 
mighty  scoop,  and  raised  toward  the  traveler,  which  may  be  already 
starting  back  on  its  journey  to  the  other  end  of  the  truss  100  or  200 
feet  away,  and  perhaps  the  whole  machine  will  be  moving  over  the 
track  laid  for  it  to  some  other  point  where  the  ore  is  to  be  deposited. 
Electricity  is  used  as  a  motive  power  and  the  whole  operation  is  con- 
trolled by  one  man. 

The  cantilever  crane  is  economical  in  power  and  time.  With 
revolving  cranes  the  whole  machine  has  to  be  started,  stopped,  and 
started  the  other  way  with  every  load  of  the  .bucket.  In  the  can- 
tilever, the  truss  remains  stationary  and  only  the  bucket  and  traveler 
do  the  moving.  Such  cranes  are  used  at  the  Duquesne  furnaces  of 
the  Carnegie  Steel  Company  to  carry  ore  from  the  piles  where  it  is 
stored  to  the  furnaces.  These  cranes  have  a  reach  of  236  feet  and  at 
each  movement  carry  seven  tons  of  ore. 

The  load  that  the  crane  can  safely  support  depends  upon  the 
position  of  the  traveler.  At  the  extreme  end  of  the  beam  about  8000 
or  9000  pounds  may  be  carried  with  safety,  the  amount  increasing 
rapidly  as  the  traveler  goes  toward  the  center.  In  shipbuilding  the 
traveling  crane  is  especially  efficient.  A  high  trestle  is  made  on 
which  the  carriage  runs  and  cantilevers  long  enough  to  reach  from 


IRON    AND    STEEL    WORKING. 


315 


any  part  of  the  ship  are  used.  Steel  plates,  beams,  engines,  and 
machinery  are  by  its  aid  very  quickly  deposited  just  where  they  are 
desired  and  the  cantilever  has  come  to  be  a  recognized  necessity  in 
every  well  appointed  up-to-date  shipyard. 


ORE   HOISTING   AND    CONVEYING   MACHINERY    AT  THE   PENNSYLVANIA    COMPANY'S 
DOCKS  AT  ASHTABULA  HARBOR,  OHIO. 

Built  by  the  King  Bridge  Co.  The  aprons  which  are  lowered  over  the  hatchways  are  seen  on  the  right  and 
the  stock  piles  are  to  be  seen  on  the  left.  Between  them  are  the  tracks  where  the  ore  is  loaded  directly 
on  the  cars. 

In  1899  the  price  of  iron  ore  at  the  mine  in  the  Lake  Superior 
district  ranged  from  78  cents  to  $1.41  a  ton,  and  No.  I  foundry  pig 
iron  sold  in  the  market  at  from  $12  to  $25  a  ton,  averaging  for  the 
year  $19.36.  Since  the  cost  of  the  ore  at  the  mine  is  such  a  small 
part  of  the  cost  of  the  finished  product,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  every 
improvement  in  methods  of  mining,  loading,  shipping,  unloading,  or 
carrying  by  rail  have  aided  materially  in  reducing  the  price  and  mak- 
ing it  possible  for  American  iron  to  enter  foreign  markets.  Among 
these  improvements' none  is  more  marked  than  the  substitution  of 
the  cantilever  crane  for  the  wheelbarrow. 


3l6  THE   MARVELS   OF   MODERN   MECHANISM. 

In  order  to  reduce  the  cost  of  the  iron  ore  delivered  at  their 
works  in  Pittsburg,  the  Carnegie  Company  purchased  a  road  running 
from  their  own  docks  at  Conneaut,  Lake  Erie,  to  their  furnaces  at 
Duquesne,  a  distance  of  153  miles,  and  carried  the  ore  on  a  road 
controlled  by  their  own  company,  handled  in  solid  trains,  and  at  such 
a  saving  that  it  gave  the  lowest  ton-mile  cost  of  any  road  on  the 
American  continent  reporting  to  the  interstate  commerce  commis- 
sion. They  also  employed  the  latest  and  best  machinery  not  only  to 
unload  their  boats  in  Conneaut  harbor  but  also  at  the  other  end  of 
the  line  to  transfer  the  ore  from  the  cars  to  the  stock  piles  and  from 
the  stock  piles  to  the  furnaces. 

The  mechanical  ore  unloader  on  their  docks  at  Conneaut  takes 
up  10  tons  of  iron  ore  at  a  bite  and  will  transfer  300  tons  of  ore  per 
hour  from  boats  to  cars.  Working  in  the  hold  of  a  ship  it  will  re- 
move from  90  per  cent,  to  95  per  cent,  of  the  ore  there  and  requires 
only  two  men  to  operate  it  and  three  men  to  remove  the  ore  from 
the  inaccessible  parts  of  the  ship  and  bring  it  where  the  machine  can 
get  at  it.  Much  of  the  ore  is  smelted  at  Cleveland,  Lorain,  and 
other  Lake  Erie  ports,  but  the  greater  part  of  it  is  carried  to  Youngs- 
town,  Pittsburg,  Duquesne,  and  other  points  where  fuel  is  cheap  and 
convenient,  for  the  fuel  and  limestone  required  weigh  more  than  the 
ore. 

Electro-Magnetic  Concentration  of  Iron  Ore.  Iron  is  not 
mined  in  a  pure  state  but  has  associated  with  it  impurities  or  materi- 
als known  as  "  gangue  "  which  in  the  furnace  form  slag  or  dross,  and 
if  these  are  allowed  to  go  into  the  stock  pile  they  must  be  trans- 
ported, handled,  melted,  fluxed,  and  disposed  of  at  the  furnace  at 
great  expense,  while  if  the  ore  can  be  carried  first  to  a  separator 
these  may  be  gotten  rid  of  and  only  the  remainder  known  as  "  con- 
centrates "  handled.  If  an  ore  containing  50  per  cent,  of  iron  be 
passed  through  a  separator  that  can  increase  the  amount  of  iron  to 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  317 

65  per  cent.,  it  will  enable  an  average  furnace  to  so  increase  its  out- 
put as  to  materially  lessen  the  cost  per  ton,  and  as  the  concentrate 
runs  more  uniformly  than  the  crude  ore,  it  is  much  better  suited 
for  steel  making.  Sulphur  and  phosphorus  are  found  in  some  ores 
and  if  present,  except  in  small  quantities,  render  the  iron  unfit  for 
steel  making. 

Magnetic  Separators.  Several  methods  have  been  employed  to 
remove  the  impurities  from  the  iron  ore,  the  better  to  fit  it  for  the 
furnace.  Among  other  means,  magnetism  has  been  employed  and 
patents  for  magnetic  separators  were  issued  a  half  century  ago,  but 
as  they  used  an  electric  current  from  a  voltaic  battery  to  produce 
their  electro-magnets,  they  were  not  a  financial  success,  and  for  this 
reason  were  impracticable  until  after  the  invention  of  the  dynamo. 
Since  that  time  many  patents  for  magnetic  separators  have  been 
taken  out,  but  one  issued  to  Edison  in  1880  is  the  basis  of  the  com- 
mercially successful  ones.  Since  Edison's  patent  many  improve- 
ments have  been  made,  the  more  recent  being  those  of  Wetherill, 
1896,  and  Payne,  1900,  but  they  all  work  on  the  same  principle. 
The  ore  as  it  comes  from  the  mine  is  crushed  between  heavy  rollers 
until  the  pieces  are  small  enough  to  be  readily  acted  upon  by  strong 
electro-magnets.  It  is  then  allowed  to  fall  in  a  thin  sheet,  passing 
in  its  course  within  the  field  of  the  magnets.  These  exert  enough 
influence  on  that  part  of  the  ore  that  is  rich  in  iron,  so  that,  instead 
of  falling  in  a  straight  line,  it  is  drawn  a  little  to  one  side,  and  sepa- 
rated from  the  worthless  portion.  This  was  the  method  employed 
by  Edison,  who  set  up  thin  knife-edged  partitions  where  the  stream  of 
falling  sand  separated,  caught  in  troughs  that  portion  rich  in  iron, 
and  led  it  away.  The  ore  was  made  to  fall  from  a  considerable 
height  and  pass  in  its  course  before  several  magnets.  Although  what 
was  saved  was  rich,  yet  some  was  lost  that  was  worth  saving. 

Another  type  of  machine  carried  the  ore   on  a  broad  belt  under 


3l8  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

the  magnet,  the  magnetite  being  lifted  out  of  the  mixture  and  the 
non-magnetic  mass  carried  off  and  dumped  by  the  belt.  Between 
the  first  belt  and  the  magnet  was  run  a  second  belt  at  right  angles, 
and  the  ore,  striving  to  reach  the  magnet,  was  caught  by  the  under 
surface  of  the  second  belt  and  carried  out  of  the  field. 

Each  of  these  methods  required  powerful  magnets  with  a  broad 
surface  exposed  at  the  pole,  and  of  course  as  the  magnetic  field  was 
spread  out  it  became  weakened  and  less  effective. 

Wetherill's  improvement  consisted  in  making  more  powerful  mag- 
nets and  bringing  the  poles  down  to  a  tapering  form,  so  as  to  de- 
crease the  area.  He  arranged  his  magnet  so  that  the  poles  were  in 
the  same  horizontal  plane  and  very  close  together,  and  passed  over 
each  pole  a  belt  with  a  narrow  gap  intervening  between  the  poles. 
The  ore  was  fed  from  above  and  falling  between  the  poles  that  part 
not  subject  to  magnetic  attraction  dropped  through,  but  the  mag- 
netite, trying  to  reach  the  poles  of  the  magnet,  struck  the  belts, 
clung  to  them,  and  was  carried  out  of  the  magnetic  field.  This  ma- 
chine was  a  marked  improvement  and  was  able  to  separate  95  per 
cent,  of  iron  from  the  magnetite  at  one  operation.  The  machine 
was  slightly  modified  and  the  ore  fed  from  the  under  side  in  handling 
very  finely  pulverized  ore. 

Since  the  iron  is  not  distributed  uniformly  throughout  the  ore  a 
saving  is  sometimes  effected  by  crushing  it  very  finely.  A  piece  of 
ore  y^  inch  in  diameter  containing  magnetite  and  "  gangue  "  in 
the  proportion  of  three  to  five  will  go  into  the  tailings,  but  if  it  be 
crushed  finer  some  of  the  resulting  small  pieces  may  contain 
magnetite  in. the  proportion  of  five  to  three  and  these  will  be  saved. 

Separating  Sand  from  Iron.  At  some  places  on  Long  Island 
sand  is  found  -containing  26  per  cent,  of  the  finest  iron  known,  but 
it  has  with  it  titanite  iron,  a  substance  that  renders  it  unfit  for  smelt- 
ing. When  Edison  discovered  that  titanite  was  less  magnetic  than 


IRON   AND    STEEL    WORKING.  319 

pure  iron  he  made  a  separator  consisting  of  a  V-shaped  box  with  a 
slit  in  the  bottom  through  which  the  sand  fell  in  a  sheet  before  a 
strong  magnet  that  deflected  the  pure  iron  in  falling  enough  so  it 
could  be  separated  from  the  rest.  The  machine  cost  about  $700 
and  with  a  boy  to  run  it  could  treat  100  tons  of  sand  a  day  and  ex- 
tract from  it  about  20  tons  of  fine  iron  ore  at  a  cost  of  about  $i  a 
ton,  while  the  ore  was  worth  $6  a  ton. 

IRON  SMELTING. 

The  iron  which  we  see  in  use  in  everyday  life  is  not  found  in 
that  form  in  the  mines,  and  even  in  the  arts  pure  iron  is  almost  un- 
known, for  the  whole  range  of  iron  and  steel  is  a  series  of  alloys,  of 
which  carbon  is  the  one  that  affects  its  physical  wants  most,  although 
nickel,  chrome,  and  manganese  each  have  their  special  action  upon  it. 
The  iron  of  trade  is  obtained  from  ores  which  are  oxides  of  that 
metal,  mixed  with  lime,  clay,  rock,  or  other  impurities,  and  to  be 
worked  profitably  must  contain  at  least  20  per  cent,  of  iron. 

PRINCIPAL   IRON    ORES. 

NAME  COMPOSITION  PERCENTAGE   OF    IRON 

1.  Magnetic  iron  ore  Iron  and  oxygen  72.41 

2.  Red  hematite  Iron  and  oxygen  70 

3.  Brown  hematite  Iron,  oxygen,  and  water  61.6  (water  12) 

4.  Spathic  iron  ore  Iron,  oxygen,  and  carbonic  acid  48.2 

5.  Black-Mnd  Iron,  oxygen,  carbonic  acid,  20  to  35  (coal 

clay,  and  coal  10  to  25) 

The  principal  iron  ores  of  commerce  are  reduced  by  heating  them 
with  some  form  of  carbon,  as  charcoal,  coal,  or  coke.  The  carbon 
unites  with  the  oxygen,  passes  off  as  gas,  and  the  metallic  iron 
melts,  tends  to  free  itself  from  other  impurities  and  falls  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  furnace.  In  common  practice  layers  of  iron  ore,  coke, 
and  limestone  are  put  into  a  furnace,  fire  applied,  and  the  whole 
blown  with  powerful  blasts  of  air  to  produce  great  heat,  hence  the 


320          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

name  "blast  furnace."  The  limestone  and  other  impurities  are  put 
in  as  a  flux  to  guard  the  iron  and  help  carry  off  the  impurities. 

The  origin  of  the  reduction  of  iron  is  lost  in  the  mystery  sur- 
rounding the  ages  before  history  began.  The  first  method  may  have 
been  merely  to  build  up  a  pile  of  layers  of  ore  and  wood  and  set  fire 
to  the  mass.  This  would  give  a  small  quantity  of  fairly  good  iron 
at  a  great  waste  of  time,  ore,  and  fuel,  but  in  an  age  when  the  latter 
were  not  important  considerations.  Probably  the  next  step  was  to 
build  the  pile  on  an  elevation  where  it  would  be  exposed  to  currents 
of  air.  Next,  to  concentrate  the  heat,  a  hole  may  have  been  dug  in 
the  ground  and  the  pile  built  in  that,  and  the  next  step  would  be 
a  tunnel  leading  from  the  pit  and  pointing  in  the  direction  of  the 
prevailing  wind.  When  the  bellows  was  invented  its  application  to 
the  furnace  was  an  easy  step. 

The  cut  shows  an  illustration  of  a  very  ancient  method  employed 
in  India.  The  furnace  is  built  of  clay  and  at  the  bottom  are  two 

hollow  bamboo  tubes,  the  rude  pro- 
genitor of  the  modern  tuyere.  A 
goatskin  bellows  with  a  hole  in  its 
cover  connects  with  each  tube.  To 
the  cover  is  attached  a  string  lead- 
ing up  to  a  spring  pole.  The  work- 
man operates  it  by  drawing  up  the 
PRIMITIVE  IRON  FURNACE,  INDIA.  bellows>  covering  the  hole  with 

his  heel,  stepping  upon  it,  depressing  it  by  his  weight  and  forc- 
ing the  air  it  contains  through  the  bamboo  into  the  furnace.  The 
furnace  is  fed  from  the  top  with  ore  and  fuel  as  required,  and  the 
impurities  in  the  form  of  slag  run  off  through  an  opening  at  the  side 
near  the  bottom,  the  metal  falling  into  a  hollow  at  the  bottom  of  the 
furnace.  Such  was  the  method  employed  in  India  at  Chalybia,  from 
which  we  derive  our  modern  "  chalybeate." 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  321 

The  Persians  are  said  to  have  invented  the  bellows  in  the  form 
now  known,  to  have  introduced  the  use  of  charcoal,  and  made  con- 
siderable improvements  in  iron  smelting.  One  of  their  furnaces,  at 
its  best  but  "a  basin  shaped  hole,  6  to  12  inches  in  depth,  and  12 
to  24  inches  in  diameter,  was  first  made  in  the  earth ;  this  cavity 
was  then  lined  with  moistened  charcoal  dust,  which  was  well  rammed 
to  make  it  as  dense  as  possible ;  the  hearth  thus  formed  was  then 
filled  with  charcoal,  on  which  was  placed  a  layer  of  crushed  ore,  and 
over  this  alternate  layers  of  fuel  and  ore  until  the  heap  was  of  the 
desired  height ;  the  outside  of  the  mass  of  charcoal  and  ore  was  then 
incased  in  a  covering  of  rough  stones  laid  in  a  mortar  of  clay  and 
sand,  or,  in  some  cases,  it  was  merely  plastered  over  with  a  thick 
layer  of  such  mortar;  care  was  always  taken  to  have  a  hole  near  the 
bottom,  just  above  the  edge  of  the  hearth,  for  the  insertion  of  a  tube 
of  baked  clay  to  serve  as  a  tuyere,  and  a  second  hole  at  the  top  for 
the  escape  of  smoke  and  gases.  Fire  was  then  introduced  at  the 
tuyere  and  the  bellows  connected,  a  gentle  blast  being  used  until  all 
the  moisture  of  the  ore  and  the  covering  of  the  heap  was  driven  off. 
As  soon  as  this  was  accomplished,  the  blast  was  increased  and  the 
heat  thereby  augmented.  At  the  end  of  several  hours,  a  mass  of 
metallic  iron  weighing  twenty  to  thirty  pounds  was  found  at  the 
bottom  of  the  hearth,  from  which  it  was  removed  by  tongs  and  forged 
by  sledge  hammers  into  the  desired  shape,  several  reheatings  being 
required.  The  iron  obtained  was  not  usually  over  20  per  cent,  of 
that  in  the  ore,  and  only  the  richest  ores  were  used." 

For  many  centuries  the  iron  furnaces  of  Europe  were  of  the 
most  primitive  kind,  and  although  a  good  quality  of  iron  and  steel 
was  produced  in  them  the  quantity  was  limited.  The  only  changes 
of  importance  up  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  the 
enlargement  of  the  furnaces  and  the  substitution  of  water  power  to 
drive  the  blast.  Even  at  that  time  the  best  furnaces  were  of  very 


322 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


simple  character  and  the  modern  blast  furnace  is  distinctly  a  product 
of  the  nineteenth  century  and  more  especially  of  the  latter  half  of 
that  century. 

The  Use  of  Coke  Begun.  Until  1735  charcoal  was  almost  uni- 
versally used  as  a  reducing  fuel,  but  at  that  date  coke  was  success- 
fully used  in  the  manufacture  of  pig  iron  by  Abraham  Darby  of 
England,  and  by  1750  its  use  had  become  general  in  that  country. 
Its  introduction  into  America  was  much  later,  and  although  the  first 
rolling  mill  in  Western  Pennsylvania,  built  at  Plumsock  in  Fayette 
County,  in  the  heart  of  the  present  Connellsville  coke  region,  at- 
tempted in  1817  to  make  use  of  a  kind  of  coke  they  met  with  little 
success.  In  1835  gray  forge  iron  was  successfully  made  in  Pennsyl- 
vania by  the  use  of  coke  and  it  soon  became  generally  used  and 
greatly  increased  the  production  of  iron.  William 
Firmstone,  who  was  born  in  England  and  emi- 
grated to  America  in  1835,  is  generally  credited 
with  having  introduced  into  America  the  hot  air 
blast  and  the  use  of  coke  in  the  manufacture  of 


Cote. 


'892 


iron. 


Some  reasons  why  charcoal  was  so  generally 
used  in  the  United  States  were  :  the  lack  of  trans- 
portation facilities  for  bringing  iron  ore  and  coke 
i  together,  the  fact  that  not  all  the  bituminous  coal 
discovered  was  suitable  for  making  coke  and  its 
manufacture  was  not  well  understood,  the  country 
was  poor  and  had  an  abundance  of  timber  of  which 
the  settlers  were  glad  to  get  rid,  and,  finally,  char- 
coal iron  was  popularly  supposed  to  be  the  best. 

The  accompanying  cut  shows  the  remarkable 
increase  in  size  as  well  as  the  change  in  outline 
in  the  blast  furnace  within  a  period  of  a  half  century.  Not  so  very 


GROWTH  IN  SIZE  OF 
BLAST  FURNACES. 


IRON    AND    STEEL   WORKING. 


323 


long  ago  it  was  thought  that  massive  stone  walls  were  necessary  to 
confine  the  heat  in  the  furnace,  but  the  walls  have  become  thinner  and 
thinner  until  now  they  are  a  mere  shell  of  iron  lined  with  fire  brick. 

The  fire  brick  so  extensively  used  in  iron  smelting  need  to  be 
frequently  renewed,  not  because  they  are  burned  out  by  the  fire,  for 
the  brick  are  infusible  at  ordinary  furnace  temperatures,  but  because 
the  iron  unites  with  the  silica  in  the  brick,  forms  a  melted  slag, 
and  the  bricks  become  spongy  and  are  eaten  away.  It  is  essential 
that  fire  brick  contain  as  little  lime,  soda,  potash,  and  other  sub- 
stances likely  to  fuse  with  the  iron  as  possible,  so  a  peculiar  kind  of 
clay,  deposited  as  fine  sediment  where  rank  vegetable  growth  has 
absorbed  a  large  proportion  of  the  undesirable  elements,  is  em- 
ployed. In  the  brick  made  from  the  plastic  clay  of  New  Jersey  the 
material  is  first  burned,  then  ground  and  mixed  with  enough  plastic 
clay  to  form  bricks,  when  it  is  molded  and  again  burned.  Such 
brick  are  able  to  withstand  great  heat  but  possess 
little  power  to  resist  mechanical  stress,  so  are  used 
only  to  protect  from  the  action  of  the  fire  the  other 
materials  having  other  necessary  qualities. 

The  interior  of  a  blast  furnace  has  something  the 
same  outline  as  a  lamp  chimney.  The  straight  part 
at  the  bottom  of  the  chimney  is  called  the  "  hearth," 
the  sloping  sides  up  to  where  it  reaches  its  greatest 
diameter  are  called  "boshes,"  the  lower  part  of  the 
hearth  is  called  the  "  crucible,"  and  at  theupperpart 

of  the  hearth  are  from  one  to  many  openings  called 

PARTS  OF  BLAST 

"tuyeres,"  through   which  the  blast   of  hot  air  is  in-         FURNACE. 
troduced.      The   shaft    proper   above    the    boshes   is  frequently  built 
upon    iron    pillars  and   stands   permanently,    while    the    boshes    and 
hearth  are  taken  down  and  relined  or  changes  made  in  them  without 
affecting  the  shaft.      The  furnace  is  charged  through  the  top  and  is 


324          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

closed  by  a  cone-shaped  iron  cover  held  in  place  against  an  annular 
projection  by  the  pressure  from  within  and  a  counterweight  from 
without. 

The  Process  of  Smelting.  The  charge,  made  up  of  crushed  ore, 
coke,  limestone,  and  any  other  materials  that  the  quality  of  the 
ore  to  be  smelted  requires,  all  arranged  in  the  right  proportion  for 
the  grade  of  iron  to  be  made  and  the  kind  of  ore  that  is  used,  is 
placed  on  top  of  the  cone  and  when  needed  the  cone  is  lowered  a 
few  inches,  the  material  slides  down  its  sloping  sides,  the  cone  is 
drawn  back  and  the  opening  closed,  thus  saving  for  later  use  the 
heated  products  of  combustion  that  were  formerly  allowed  to  escape. 
Before  the  charge  is  introduced  the  furnace  is  heated  by  a  charge  of 
fuel,  and  once  warmed  up  it  may  continue  in  operation  for  a  year  or 
more  without  being  allowed  to  cool  down.  The  charge  is  admitted 
to  the  top  slowly  until  the  furnace  is  almost  full  and  then  fed  just 
fast  enough  to  take  the  place  of  the  iron  and  slag  drawn  off  from 
below,  the  fuel  and  waste  escaping  as  gas.  As  the  fire  consumes  the 
fuel  at  the  bottom  and  the  charge  descends  it  passes  through  several 
well-defined  zones.  Starting  at  the  top  unchanged  it  grows  hotter 
and  hotter,  the  moisture  is  driven  off,  until  finally  the  ore  is  roasted 
and  becomes  magnetic  oxide  of  iron,  the  most  favorable  condition  for 
reduction.  The  coke  and  the  flux  still  remain  substantially  un- 
changed, but  when  the  charge  reaches  the  boshes  the  temperature 
has  risen  to  the  point  where  the  fuel  ignites,  and  the  hottest  part  of 
the  furnace  is  soon  reached.  Here  the  ore  is  melted  and  its  oxygen 
driven  off.  The  flux,  suited  to  the  character  of  the  ore  and  planned 
so  that  it  melts  at  the  same  time,  coats  each  little  iron  globule  and 
prevents  it  from  being  immediately  oxidized  and  so  carries  it  safely 
past  the  danger  zone.  Continuing  its  descent  past  the  tuyeres  the 
iron  goes  to  the  crucible  at  the  bottom  of  the  hearth,  where  it 
accumulates,  and  the  flux  being  lighter  floats  on  top  and  protects  it 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  325 

from  the  oxidizing  influence  of  the  blast  above.  At  certain  intervals 
the  iron  and  flux  are  drawn  off  through  small  holes  at  the  bottom  of 
the  hearth,  the  iron  being  run  into  the  bed  and  made  into  pigs  and 
the  flux  drawn  off  out  of  the  way  and  allowed  to  cool,  when  it  is 
called  "slag,"  for  which  a  variety  of  uses  has  been  found. 

Since  some  blast  furnaces  are  as  much  as  90  feet  in  height  it 
might  seem  that  the  immense  weight  of  the  charge  would  crush 
down  the  fire  and  smother  it,  but  the  charge  is  actually  buoyed  up 
by  the  enormous  pressure  of  the  air  blast  blown  in  through  the 
tuyeres,  the  weight  of  the  air  being  literally  more  than  twice  the 
weight  of  the  charge. 

A  fairly  typical  blast  furnace  is  Furnace  F  of  the  Edgar 
Thomson  Steel  Works  near  Pittsburg.  It  is  80  feet  high,  22  feet 
in  diameter  at  the  boshes,  its  hearth  is  1 1  feet  in  diameter,  and 
the  furnace  has  a  capacity  of  18,000  cubic  feet.  It  produces  on 
an  average  351  tons  of  pig  iron  per  day  and  burns  1756  pounds  of 
coke  for  every  ton  of  iron  produced.  A  writer  describes  the  air 
blast  supplying  it  as  follows:  — 

"  Heating  the  25,000  cubic  feet  of  air  supplied  per  minute  to  a 
temperature  of  1200  degrees  Fahrenheit,  its  volume  would  be  in- 
creased to  85,000  cubic  feet ;  and  on  the  supposition  that  the  fur- 
nace is  blown  by  seven  tuyeres,  each  seven  inches  in  diameter,  this 
torrid  air  would  rush  through  each  tuyere  (under  a  pressure  of  nine 
pounds  per  square  inch)  at  the  rate  of  12,143  cubic  feet,  and  having 
the  enormous  lineal  velocity  of  45,417  feet  per  minute.  This 
velocity  is  over  five  times  that  of  the  most  violent  tornadoes,  and 
the  pressure  is  more  than  25  times  greater.  Should  a  blast  of  equal 
pressure  and  velocity  come  from  unfathomed  space  and  envelop  the 
earth,  it  is  absolutely  certain  that  no  living  beings  nor  loose  materials 
would  be  left  upon  its  rock  ribbed  skeleton,  which,  stripped  of  its 
flesh  and  blood,  fields  and  forests,  lakes  and  oceans,  would  be  hurled 


326          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

into  a  new  orbit  and  made  to  assume  revolutions  and  rotations 
whose  amplitude  and  duration  it  is  impossible  to  imagine  or  de- 
scribe." 

When  enough  molten  iron  has  accumulated  in  the  hearth  a  plug 
of  fire  clay  is  knocked  out  and  the  metal  runs  out  into  a  bed  of  sand 
through  which  a  main  channel  is  cut,  with  smaller  channels  leading 
off  from  it  at  right  angles.  The  smaller  channels  are  known  as 
"  sows  "  and  from  these  branch  at  right  angles  a  series  of  short  chan- 
nels known  as  "  pigs,"  where  the  iron  cools,  the  cooling  being  some- 
times hastened  by  a  man  with  a  hose,  after  which  it  is  broken  into 
small  pieces  and  loaded  on  the  cars. 

It  costs  on  an  average  about  20  cents  a  ton  to  take  care  of  the 
iron  after  leaving  the  furnace  till  it  is  loaded  on  the  cars.  A  bed  of 
sand  has  some  objectionable  features.  The  silicon  in  the  sand  tends 
to  unite  somewhat  with  the  melted  iron  and  renders  it  unsuitable  for 
making  the  best  steel.  To  overcome  this  difficulty  and  to  reduce 
the  cost  of  handling,  casting  machines  are  made  consisting  of  a  line 
of  connected  traveling  molds  arranged  in  the  form  of  an  endless  belt 
and  carried  on  rollers.  The  molten  iron  is  drawn  from  the  furnace 
into  great  ladles  and  poured  from  these  into  the  molds  as  they  come 
moving  past,  the  size  of  the  stream  being  just  enough  to  fill  the 
molds  as  they  pass  under  the  ladle.  Passing  on  in  their  course  the 
molds  are  carried  down  a  slight  incline  to  a  level  where  the  bottoms 
are  brought  in  contact  with  the  top  of  the  water  in  a  long  tank.  As 
they  continue  their  course  the  track  dips  more  and  more  until  the 
mold  passes  entirely  beneath  the  water.  The  track  emerges  and 
rises  high  enough  to  allow  the  pigs  of  iron  to  drop  into  cars  ready  to 
receive  them  at  the  other  end,  and  as  the  wet  molds  travel  back 
under  the  tank  for  a  fresh  charge  at  the  ladle  they  pass  through  a  gas 
furnace  which  dries  the  molds  and  deposits  on  them  a  coating  of  soot 
that  prevents  the  molten  iron  from  sticking  to  them  when  they  turn 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  327 

up  at  the  ladle  to  receive  another  charge.  In  this  machine  the  only 
hand  labor  required  is  that  regulating  the  flow  of  iron  from  the  ladle, 
and  the  cost  of  handling  the  pigs  has  been  reduced  from  20  cents  to 
5  cents  a  ton. 

Pure  iron,  a  curiosity  of  the  laboratory,  is  of  a  white  silvery 
color,  has  a  beautiful  luster  and  is  very  soft  and  tough.  When  sub- 
jected to  heat  in  the  presence  of  oxygen,  it  burns  long  before  the 
melting  point  is  reached,  but  in  the  absence  of  oxygen  it  fuses  at 
about  3000°  Fahrenheit. 

Pig  iron  is  iron  containing  from  I  ^  per  cent,  to  7  per  cent,  of 
carbon,  which  renders  it  brittle  and  fusible  at  a  comparatively  low 
temperature.  Pig  iron  is  made  in  three  varieties:  gray,  mottle,  and 
white,  and  is  classed  in  eight  grades  beginning  with  gray  and  ending 
with  white.  The  gray  is  coarse,  granular,  and  soft ;  the  white  finely 
crystalline,  and  as  hard  as  the  hardest  steel,  "the  difference  being  due 
mainly  to  the  different  combinations  of  the  carbon  in  its  make-up. 
Pig  iron  fuses  at  from  1922°  to  2192°  Fahrenheit,  according  to  its 
grade,  and  its  average  chemical  composition  is  about  as  follows:  - 

Combined  Carbon 0.91  per  cent. 

Graphitic  Carbon .  . .  .• i  .92  per  cent. 

Silicon i  .8 1  per  cent. 

Phosphorus 33  per  cent. 

Sulphur, 25  per  cent. 

Manganese i .  28  per  cent. 

Pure  Iron 93-5°  Per  cent. 


100.00  per  cent. 

Cast  iron  is  practically  the  same  as  pig  iron  except  that  it  has 
been  reheated  and  cast  into  the  desired  form.  If  hammered  cold  it 
breaks  and  cannot  be  welded  like  wrought  iron.  Malleable  iron  is 
cast  iron,  made  by  puddling  or  boiling  and  hammering  or  squeezing, 
thus  getting  rid  of  some  of  the  impurities,  until  it  can  be  hammered 
cold  without  cracking. 


328  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

Puddling  is  the  process  of  ridding  the  pig  iron  of  some  of  its  im- 
purities and  superfluous  carbon  by  melting  it  in  a  reverberatory  fur- 
nace and  forcing  through  it  a  blast  of  hot  air,  and  at  the  same  time 
stirring  the  molten  fluid.  By  this  operation  a  large  part  of  the  car- 
bon that  rendered  the  metal  brittle  is  burned  out  and  the  particles  of 
iron  have  enough  cohesion  so  that  they  can  be  formed  into  balls  and 
squeezed  in  machinery  or  into  blooms  (bars  or  ingots)  and  hammered. 
This  product  when  remelted  and  cast  will  stand  considerable  ham- 
mering when  cold  without  cracking. 

Wrought  iron  is  made  by  the  same  process  only  the  puddling  is 
stopped  sooner  and  the  working  carried  farther.  It  contains  less  sil- 
icon and  carbon  than  cast  iron,  but  more  of  these  substances  than 
malleable  iron.  Wrought  iron  fuses  at  from  2732°  to  2912°  Fah- 
renheit, but  before  reaching  the  point  of  fusion  becomes  white  and 
.pasty,  and  when  two  pieces  of  iron  in  this  condition  are  brought  in 
contact,  the  surfaces  adhere  and  the  masses  can  be  united,  forming  a 
"  weld."  It  is  this  property  of  welding  that  renders  wrought  iron  so 
valuable  in  the  arts.  The  phosphorus  and  sulphur,  undesirable 
substances  within  the  iron,  cannot  be  burned  out  without  burning 
the  iron,  and  as  silicon  melts  at  a  less  heat  than  the  iron,  the  mass  is 
heated  to  the  melting  point  of  silicon  and  rolled,  hammered,  and 
squeezed,  when,  under  the  influence  of  pressure,  the  liquid  silicon, 
phosphorus  and  sulphur  unite  and  are  squeezed  out  of  the  iron  in  the 
form  of  cinder  or  slag,  the  working  being  continued  until  the  desired 
degree  of  purity  has  been  reached. 

The  methods  by  which  wrought  iron  is  produced  from  pig  iron 
are  chiefly  the  inventions  of  Henry  Cort  of  England,  who,  in  1783- 
84,  introduced  puddling  grooved  rolls  to  take  the  place  of  hammering 
and  the  reverberatory  furnace.  He  first  melted  his  iron  and  caused 
the  fierce  flame  of  the  furnace  to  pass  over  the  iron,  the  flame  in  its 
course  being  bent  back  by  the  roof  of  the  furnace  (reverberated)  and 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  329 

passing  over  the  face  of  the  molten  metal  burned  out  the  carbon  and 
reduced  the  necessary  amount  of  working.  Rogers  introduced  a  cast 
iron  bed  cooled  by  air  instead  of  the  sand  bed  used  by  Cort.  Neilson 
of  Glasgow  in  1828  took  out  a  patent  for  heating  the  air  blast  before 
introducing  it  into  the  furnace  and  by  this  method  greatly  in- 
creased the  furnace  capacity.  Neilson's  method  was  used  at  first 
wholly  for  the  manufacture  of  pig  iron,  but  probably  gave  a  hint  to 
Kelly,  Bessemer,  Mushet  and  Siemens. 

Steel  means  more  than  any  other  metal  to  modern  progress, 
for  it  enters  into  nearly  every  manufactured  product,  either  as  a 
component  part  or  in  the  construction  of  the  machine  which  pro- 
duced it.  Articles  with  the  widest  difference  in  size,  shape,  and  uses 
are  made  from  it,  ranging  from  the  finest  cambric  needle  or  the  hair- 
spring of  a  watch  to  the  armor  of  a  battleship  or  the  largest  cannon, 
yet  it  is  only  the  last  quarter  century  that  has  seen  the  introduction 
of  steel  for  articles  of  any  considerable  weight.  Steel  was  known  at 
an  early  age  and  the  sword  plates  of  Damascus  were  famous  before 
the  birth  of  Christ,  while  the  steel  of  India,  "  wootz,"  is  almost  as 
famous  and  perhaps  as  old.  Although  the  steel  maker  of  the  present 
is  not  able  to  produce  any  better  steel  in  small  quantities  than  his 
early  progenitor,  and  in  fact  finds  it  difficult  to  equal  him,  yet  he  is 
able  to  make  it  in  such  large  quantities  of  uniform  quality  that  it 
rivals  iron  in  cheapness  and  far  exceeds  it  in  strength  and  rigidity. 

Steel  is  a  peculiar  metal  in  composition,  lying  about  midway 
between  cast  and  malleable  iron.  It  contains  less  silicon,  sulphur, 
and  phosphorus  than  either,  and  its  carbon  is  present  in  a  definitely 
known  proportion  ranging  from  ^  per  cent,  to  2  ^  per  cent.,  the 
carbon  rendering  it  hard  and  brittle.  Steel  fuses  at  from  2372°  to 
2552°  Fahrenheit,  dependent  upon  the  amount  of  carbon  it  contains. 
Steel  possesses  the  peculiar  property  of  tempering,  that  is,  its  con- 
dition of  crystallization  can  be  set  in  several  forms  by  heating  the 


33°  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

steel  to  a  certain  temperature  and  then  suddenly  cooling  it.  It  is 
this  property  of  tempering  that  makes  it  possible  to  give  steel  almost 
any  degree  of  hardness  and  renders  it  fit  for  springs  and  tools  with 
cutting  edges.  The  ancients  are  said  to  have  possessed  the  secret 
of  tempering  copper,  now  considered  as  one  of  the  lost  arts.  When 
the  steel  is  heated  there  is  formed  on  its  surface  an  oxide  of  iron,  the 
color  of  which  is  a  sure  index  to  the  temperature  to  which  the  steel 
has  been  raised. 

"The  effects  of  temper  vary  with  the  nature  of  the  steel,  and 
are  much  more  pronounced,  as  the  steel  is  more  carbonized  and 
homogeneous.  The  increase  of  resistance  produced  by  oil  temper 
varies  from  79  to  12  per  cent.,  according  to  Kirkaldy, —  a  very  high 
authority, —  in  the  case  of  high  steels  tempered  at  a  high  tem- 
perature and  low  steels  tempered  at  a  medium  temperature.  Oil 
temper  increases  the  homogeneity  of  medium  steel  by  destroying 
the  crystalline  texture  which  the  latter  frequently  presents  in  the 
central  parts  of  specimens,  and  increases  its  resistance  to  percus- 
sion. 

"  The  following  table,  from  tests  made  by  the  Navy  Department, 
will  give  an  idea  of  the  effect  of  oil  temper  on  the  physical  proper- 
ties of  mild  or  medium  hard  steel,  for  example:  — 

ELASTIC    STRENGTH  TENSILE    STRENGTH  ELONGATION 


Before 

After 

Before 

After 

Before 

After 

tempering 
Tons 

tempering 
Tons 

tempering 
Tons 

tempering 
Tons 

tempering 
Tons 

tempering 
Tons 

13 

29.2 

26.8 

45.2 

-737 

•433 

13 

27.8 

27.8 

46.0 

.707 

•345 

12 

26.0 

27.6 

39-6 

.713 

.420 

12 

25.8 

28.0 

41.0 

.633 

.480 

13-77 

34-15 

28.11 

49.8 

.596 

.260 

12.  l8 

34-8 

26.9 

49.4 

•564 

.202 

"Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  elastic  strength  is  more  than 
doubled,  the  tensile  strength  raised  more  than  60  per  cent.,  while  the 
elongation  is  reduced  over  40  per  cent. 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  331 

"  The  annealing  process  reduces  the  tensile  and  elastic  strength 
from  10  to  15  per  cent.,  and  restores  the  ductility,  as  measured  by 
the  elongation,  from  25  to  40  per  cent."  * 

Another  method  of  tempering  steel  is  to  melt  alloys  which  fuse 
at  a  known  temperature,  then  plunge  the  steel  into  the  melted  mass. 
The  following  table  shows  the  color  and  temperature  of  steel  for  dif- 
ferent tempers  and  the  proportions  of  lead  and  tin  that  would  melt 
at  the  temperature  required  to  give  steel  dipped  in  it  the  right 
temper. 

TEMPER  TEMPERATURE  ALLOY 

Pale  straw  420°  Fahrenheit  7  lead  to  4  tin 

Straw  450°  "  8     "     "  4  " 

Straw  yellow  480°  "  8^"     "  4  " 

Nut  brown  500°  "  14     "     "  4  " 

Purple  530°  "  19     "     "  4  " 

Bright  blue  580°  "  48     "     "  4  " 

Deep  blue  590°  "  50     "     "   2   " 

Blackish  blue  640°  "  All  lead 

The  constitution  of  iron  and  steel  is  clearly  shown  by  dissolving 
each  in  chlorine  gas.  Chlorine  unites  readily  with  the  iron,  but  does 
not  affect  the  slag,  so  dissolves  out  pure  iron  leaving  a  skeleton  of 
slag  in  exactly  the  position  it  had  occupied  in  the  iron,  sometimes 
showing  the  slag  to  be  grouped  in  such  a  way  as  to  materially  weaken 
the  iron.  A  piece  of  steel  so  treated  will  leave  no  skeleton,  the  slag 
showing  only  in  a  small  amount  of  sediment. 

The  crucible  process  of  making  steel  is  the  oldest  of  the  modern 
methods,  for  it  consists  simply  in  melting  wrought  iron  in  the  presence 
of  carbon  in  crucibles,  and  it  was  in  this  way  that  the  Indian 
"  wootz  "  was  made.  The  melting  point  of  wrought  iron  is  so  high 
that  it  was  difficult  to  reach  in  the  early  furnaces,  so  steel  was  ordi- 
narily made  by  heating  wrought  iron  in  a  furnace  with  charcoal,  the 
heated  metal  taking  up  carbon  enough  from  the  charcoal  to  form 


*Ingersoll's  "  Text-Book  of  Ordnance  and  Gunnery." 


332 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


steel.  This  method  was  known  as  "  carburizing"  or  "cementation," 
and  the  steel  was  called  "blistered  bar"  and  formed  the  steel  of 
commerce  until  about  1770,  when  Huntsman  succeeded  in  melting  it 
in  a  crucible  and  produced  cast  steel. 

Prior  to  1855  cast  steel  was  made  entirely  by  the  crucible  proc- 
ess, and   Krupp,  the  famous  gun  maker  of  Essen,  Germany,  was  the 

largest  producer.  The  difficulties 
connected  with  this  method  were 
great,  for  only  about  90  pounds  of 
steel  could  be  made  in  one  crucible 
and  many  crucibles  had  to  be  used  in 
making  a  casting  of  large  size.  If  a 
crucible  were  poured  before  it  were 
quite  ready,  the  steel  would  not  have 
the  right  composition,  and  if  held 
over  a  few  minutes  the  steel  would  be 
burnt.  This  meant  that  all  the  cruci- 
bles must  be  ready  to  pour  at  the  same 
instant.  Difficult  as  was  the  process, 
Krupp  brought  it  to  such  a  high  state 
of  perfection  that  in  1851  he  showed 
an  ingot  weighing  about  5000 pounds  at  the  London  Exhibition;  and 
in  1873,  at  Vienna,  he  displayed  a  similar  ingot  made  by  the  crucible 
method,  which  weighed  115,000  pounds.  However,  it  is  exceed- 
ingly doubtful  if  Krupp's  ingots  were  without  flaws  for  in  1857  Sir 
William  Armstrong  was  unable  to  find  a  perfect  ingot  of  only  350 
pounds  weight  from  which  to  make  a  cannon. 

The  Bessemer  process  of  steel  making  consists  of  forcing  a 
blast  of  air  through  a  crucible  (converter)  containing  melted  cast  iron, 
and  so  burning  out  the  excess  of  carbon  and  making  the  cast  iron 
directly  into  steel.  In  1855-56  Sir  Henry  Bessemer  took  out  pat- 


ALFRED  FRIEDRICH  KRUPP. 


IRON    AND    STEEL    WORKING. 


333 


SIR  HENRY  BESSEMER. 


ents  in  England  for  a  process  of  changing  cast  iron  directly  into 
steel  by  blowing  atmospheric  air  through  the  molten  metal.  In 
1856  he  secured  two  patents  in  the  United  States  but  was  imme- 
diately confronted  by  the  claim  of  priority 
of  William  Kelly,  an  iron  maker  of  Eddy- 
ville,  Kentucky,  who  was  granted  a  patent 
in  interference  which  operated  as  a  bar  to 
the  patents  granted  Bessemer.  Kelly  showed 
that  as  early  as  1847  ne  had  experimented 
with  air  blasts  and  had  produced  the  wrought 
iron  from  cast  iron.  Kelly  had  not  made 
steel  and  Bessemer  was  not  successful  until 
reinforced  by  the  discoveries  of  Mushet  and 
Goransson. 

"  Robert  F.  Mushet,  after  Bessemer's 
process  had  failed  in  1855—56  to  successfully  manufacture  the  steel, 
took  out  a  patent  September,  1856,  for  a  process  of  adding  to  melted 
cast  iron  which  had  been  decarbonized  and  desiliconized  by  a  pneu- 
matic blast  a  triple  compound  of  carbon,  iron,  and  manganese,  and 
the  addition  of  from  I  per  cent,  to  5  per  cent,  of  this  compound  to 
the  cast  iron  mentioned  at  once  overcame  the  obstacle  which  had 
been  fatal  to  the  success  of  Mr.  Bessemer.  Bessemer  had  decarbon- 
ized and  desiliconized  melted  cast  iron  but  he  had  not  been  able  to 
retain  or  restore  the  small  quantity  of  carbon  that  was  necessary  to 
produce  steel,  and  in  the  oxygen  of  his  powerful  blast  he  had  given 
to  the  contents  of  his  converter  an  element  which  prevented  the  pro- 
duction of  even  good  iron.  Mr.  Mushet's  invention  regulated  the 
supply  of  carbon  and  eliminated  the  oxygen."* 

Mushet's    British    patents   lapsed,    and    became    public    prop- 
erty,   owing    to    his    poverty   and    other    unfortunte    circumstances. 


*  Swank.     "Iron  in  All  Ages." 


334  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

Neither  Kelly,  to  whom  a  broad  United  States  patent  was  issued 
covering  the  idea  of  forcing  air  through  molten  iron,  nor  Bessemer, 
was  able  to  produce  good  steel  without  the  aid  of  Mushet's  dis- 
covery, and  yet  the  latter  died  poor  and  unknown  while  Bessemer 
was  knighted  by  Queen  Victoria  for  his  invention  and  received 
royalties  aggregating  $500,000  a  year.  He  acknowledged  some 
moral  obligation  to  Mushet  by  allowing  him  an  annuity  of  £300. 

In  1890,  at  the  international  meeting  of  the  Iron  and  Steel  In- 
stitute of  Great  Britain,  Verein  deutscher  Eisenbuttenleute,  and  the 
American  Institute  of  Mining  Engineers,  Sir  James  Kitson,  presi- 
dent of  the  Institute,  read  a  letter  from  Sir  Henry  Bessemer  giving 
a  description  of  the  process,  but  Bessemer  did  not  even  mention 
Mushet's  name. 

But  even  with  Mushet's  improvement,  only  iron  ore  that  was 
practically  free  from  phosphorus  could  be  used  for  making  Bessemer 
steel.  Two  English  chemists,  Sidney  Gilchrist  Thomas  and  Percy 
C.  Gilchrist,  took  out  a  patent  November,  1877,  for  a  lining  of  a 
Bessemer  converter  made  from  a  mixture  of  calcined  dolomite  and 
tar.  This  lining  neutralized  the  phosphorus  in  the  iron  and  made  it 
possible  to  make  good  steel  out  of  ores  that  were  before  considered 
unfit.  These  latter  linings  are  called  "basic"  in  contrast  with  the 
older  "  acid"  linings.  In  the  United  States  patents  for  a  process  of 
dephosphorizing  iron  were  issued  to  Reese  of  Pittsburg  in  1866,  and 
as  the  process  covered  by  the  patents  of  Kelly,  Mushet,  Bessemer, 
Reese,  and  Thomas  and  Gilchrist  were  all  necessary  for  the  profitable 
manufacture  of  steel  in  America,  they  were  finally  consolidated  and 
became  the  property  of  stock  companies;  the  consolidation  resulting 
in  a  large  reduction  of  fees  and  royalties,  the  business  of  making 
Bessemer  steel  in  the  United  States  progressed  with  great  rapidity. 

The  method  now  known  as  the  Bessemer  process  uses  a  huge 
steel  flask  called  a  "converter"  made  from  steel  plates  lined  with 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  335 

some  refractory  material  perhaps  a  foot  thick,  the  flask  having  a  capac- 
ity from  eight  to  twelve  times  as  great  as  the  charge  it  is  to  contain  so 
as  to  allow  the  metal  to  boil.  The  flask  swings  on  trunnions  like  a 
cannon  and  is  fitted  on  the  sides  with  a  rack  and  pinion  gearing,  by 
which  it  can  be  tipped  at  any  angle,  while  in  the  bottom  are  numer- 
ous holes  through  which  blasts  of  air  are  driven  into  the  molten 

o 

metal.  The  pig  iron,  melted  in  a  blast  furnace,  is  drawn  off  into  a 
large  ladle  and  poured  into  the  converter.  The  air  blast  is  then 
turned  on  and  the  oxygen  in  the  blast  uniting  with  the  silicon  and 
carbon  in  the  iron,  the  mass  bubbles  and  boils  furiously  and  rises  to 
such  a  heat  as  to  easily  melt  an  additional  10  per  cent,  of  scrap  iron. 
When  the  silicon  burns  the  flame  from  the  mouth  of  the  flask  is 
rather  dull,  but  when  the  carbon  is  given  off  the  flame  increases  in 
brilliancy  and  becomes  an  intense  white  roaring  blaze,  the  seething 
metal  dashing  about,  shaking  the  flask  and  its  foundations.  As  the 
carbon  burns  out  the  flame  goes  down,  and  this  is  the  critical  mo- 
ment, for  a  mistake  of  a  few  seconds  may  ruin  the  charge  because 
the  right  amount  of  carbon  for  the  steel  is  contained  within  the 
charge  of  spiegeleisen  and  it  is  necessary  to  burn  out  all  the  carbon 
that  was  in  the  pig  iron  before  the  spiegeleisen  is  introduced.  When 
the  proper  moment  has  arrived  the  spiegeleisen  is  added,  the  blast 
shut  off,  the  converter  given  a  few  mighty  shakes  to  thoroughly  mix 
the  contents,  and  the  entire  charge  poured  out  into  a  great  ladle, 
from  which  it  is  run  into  molds  and  cast  into  ingots. 

The  usual  charge  of  a  Bessemer  converter  is  eight  tons,  so 
the  process  is  not  practicable  for  the  production  of  larger  castings 
owing  to  the  mechanical  difficulties  in  the  way  of  bringing  two  or 
more  converters  to  readiness  for  pouring  at  the  same  instant.  How- 
ever, it  is  the  method  most  used  for  the  manufacture  of  steel  rails 
and  structural  steel,  and  it  requires  great  skill,  for  if  the  blast  is  shut 
off  too  soon  imperfect  steel  is  produced,  and  if  continued  too  long 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

the  metal  is  burnt  and  the  charge  rendered  useless.  As  the  entire 
time  taken  in  a  single  blast  is  not  over  thirty  minutes,  an  error  of  a 
few  seconds  is  enough  to  spoil  tons  of  steel. 

Although  since  Bessemer's  invention  great  improvements  have 
been  made  in  the  art  of  steel  making,  he  is  justly  regarded  as  a 
pioneer  and  "  benefactor  of  his  kind,"  for  as  his  method  went  into 
general  use  it  seemed  as  though  new  blood  had  been  infused  into  the 
arteries  of  the  world's  trade.  Larger  engines  were  made,  steel  rails 
became  practicable,  stronger  and  better  ships  were  made.  Steel  en- 
tered generally  into  the  structure  of  buildings,  making  them  larger, 
lighter,  cheaper,  better,  and  rendering  the  ground  on  which  they 
stood  more  valuable.  In  whatever  line  steel  had  been  used  it  was 
now  available  at  a  less  price,  a  boon  to  all.  It  is  impossible  to  con- 
ceive the  number  of  accidents  averted  and  the  human  suffering  saved 
by  using  it  with  its  greater  strength  in  the  place  of  iron. 

The  open-hearth  or  Siemens-Martin  process  is  the  one  now 
usually  employed  for  making  the  largest  steel  castings.  Charles 
William  and  Frederick  Siemens,  natives  of  Hanover  but  residents  of 
England,  took  out  in  1856  patents  for  a  furnace  where  gas  was  em- 
ployed instead  of  the  direct  heat  of  the  fuel  and  in  1861  made  cast 
steel  by  the  aid  of  the  furnace.  About  the  same  time  Emile  and 
Martin  of  France  took  out  various  patents  for  inventions  which  were 
applicable  to  the  manufacture  of  steel  by  the  Siemens  furnace.  The 
open-hearth  process  did  not  originate  either  with  Siemens  or  the 
Martins,  for  Heath  and  others,  as  early  as  1845,  nad  made  steel  in  a 
similar  manner,  but  it  was  the  invention  of  the  gas  furnace  by 
Siemens  that  made  the  process  profitable. 

The  open-hearth  process  has  an  advantage  over  the  Bessemer 
process  in  that  it  can  keep  the  melted  mixture  indefinitely  until  ex- 
periments with  test  portions  determine  the  exact  quality  of  the  steel ; 
its  installation  is  more  economical  and  it  also  uses  up  the  scrap  steel 


IRON    AND    STEEL    WORKING.  337 

and  rail  ends  which  accumulate  at  a  Bessemer  furnace,  and  can  use 
worn  out  steel  rails.  It  is  estimated  that  in  the  first  35  years  of 
their  operation  the  Bessemer  and  open-hearth  processes  increased  the 
production  of  steel  more  than  a  hundredfold. 

The  open-hearth 'method  introduced  into  the  United  States  in 
1868  is  the  method  now  used  in  making  castings  of  almost  un- 
limited size,  for  the  capacity  of  the  furnace  is  practically  unlimited 
and  the  product  of  several  maybe  turned  into  one  mold.  The  open- 
hearth  furnace  is  a  large  fire  brick  structure,  near  the  top  of  which  is 
the  "  bed  "  or  "  container  "  for  the  metal.  Below  this,  on  each  side 
of  the  furnace,  are  two  perforated  checkerwork  walls  of  fire  brick, 
through  one  of  which  hot  air  is  forced  and  through  the  other,  gas. 
The  furnace  is  heated  by  forcing  in  the  air  and  gas  and  igniting 
them  above  the  bed  or  container.  The  products  of  combustion  are 
drawn  out  through  the  checkerwork  at  the  other  side  of  the  furnace, 
heating  it,  as  they  pass,  to  a  high  temperature.  After  the  current 
has  passed  in  one  direction  for  twenty  minutes  it  is  reversed.  The 
gas  and  air,  passing  between  fire  brick  just  heated  by  the  other  cur- 
rent, arrive  at  the  furnace  at  such  a  high  temperature  that  a  great 
saving  of  fuel  is  made.  The  gases  from  this  combustion  are  carried 
through  the  checkerwork  on  side  number  one  and  heat  it  up  by  the 
time  side  number  two  has  become  cool.  This  reversal  of  current  is 
made  every  twenty  minutes  throughout  the  entire  "  heat,"  which 
lasts  from  twelve  to  fourteen  hours. 

The  charging  of  the  furnace  is  done  by  a  special  machine  usually 
operated  by  electricity.  The  one  at  the  plant  of  the  Bethlehem 
Steel  Company  picks  up  with  a  twenty-foot  arm  a  box  containing 
7000  pounds  of  charging  material  and  holding  it  "at  arm's  length" 
carries  it  into  the  furnace,  empties  it,  and  withdraws  the  box  with  no 
apparent  effort.  The  charge  is  made  up  of  scrap  iron,  scrap  steel, 
pig  iron,  and  ore  in  proportions  that  will  secure  the  exact  chemical 


338          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

composition  desired.  Six  or  eight  hours  are  required  to  melt  the 
charge  and  from  four  to  six  more  to  reduce  it  to  the  right  condition 
for  pouring.  During  this  latter  period  samples  are  taken  out  at 
frequent  intervals  and  analyzed.  By  this  means  the  exact  condition 
can  be  known  and  the  process  watched  step  by  step,  rendering  the 
result  more  certain  than  other  more  or  less  "  guess-at-it  "  methods, 
while  the  longer  time  taken  lessens  the  chance  of  error. 

Large  steel  castings  successfully  produced  represent  so  many 
difficult  problems  solved  that  they  may  well  be  considered  triumphs 
of  the  steel  maker's  art.  When  molten  steel  is  poured  into  a  mold 
several  difficulties  have  to  be  overcome  to  obtain  a  perfect  casting. 
The  worst  are  called  piping,  blow-holes,  surface  cracks,  internal 
cracks,  and  segregation.  Piping  is  well  illustrated  by  the  freezing  of 
water  in  a  tumbler,  the  ice  beginning  to  form  on  the  outside,  the 
particles  drawing  away  from  the  center  and  leaving  it  hollow.  The 
same  thing  occurs  in  the  mold  when  steel  is  changing  from  a  liquid 
to  a  solid  state,  except  that  steel  begins  to  solidify  at  about  2500° 
Fahrenheit.  As  it  cools  at  the  outside  of  the  mold  it  contracts  and 
tends  to  draw  the  material  away  from  the  center  and  unless  this  is 
prevented,  instead  of  having  a  solid  ingot  one  will  form  with  a  hole 
in  the  center  perhaps  running  from  end  to  end.  This  defect  is  called 
a  "piping." 

Segregation  is  the  tendency  of  the  steel  to  squeeze  out  the  other 
constituents  as  it  cools.  These,  being  lighter  in  weight  than  the 
iron,  collect  in  the  pipe  or  float  on  the  top,  and  of  course  with  the 
alloys  squeezed  out  the  steel  is  inferior. 

Irregularities  in  cooling  set  up  such  stresses  that  cracks  often 
occur  on  the  surface,  or,  more  deceptive  and  dangerous  yet,  inter- 
nally, just  as  wood  checks  in  seasoning.  When  the  molten  metal  is 
poured  into  the  mold  air  is  carried  with  it  and  during  the  cooling 
gases  are  formed  which  tend  to  produce  cavities  or  blow-holes.  Sub- 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


ARMOR  PLATE  INGOT. 

Showing  a  nickel  steel  armor  plate  ingot  cast  for  the  port  plate  of  U.  S.  battle  ship  Iowa. 
Manufactured  by  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Company. 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  339 

jecting  the  metal  to  an  enormous  pressure  while  it  is  in  a  molten 
condition  seems  to  be  the  most  successful  method  of  overcoming 
these  difficulties. 

When  the  metal  is  ready  to  pour,  a  fire-clay  plug  in  the  bottom 
of  the  furnace  is  knocked  out  and  the  metal  run  into  a  huge  ladle  or 
car  which  carries  it  to  the  mold.  A  casting  for  a  large  gun  contains 
almost  twice  as  much  metal  as  appears  in  the  finished  product. 
The  extra  amount  is  to  allow  for  compression,  forging,  machining, 
and  enough  extra  length  for  test  pieces. 

The  mold  is  built  up  of  large,  strong  steel  rings,  placed  one 
above  the  other,  firmly  bolted  together  and  placed  on  a  firm  base 
mounted  on  wheels  so  that  it  can  be  moved  about.  The  mold  is 
heated,  the  ladle  swung  over  it  and  the  molten  metal  poured  into  it 
with  such  precautions  as  will  to  some  extent  prevent  the  formation 
of  "blow-holes."  Next  the  mold  with  its  load  of  metal  is  placed 
under  a  monster  press  and  the  "  Whitworth  Fluid  Compression" 
process  begins.  At  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Works  a  press  with  an 
upper  head  weighing  135  tons,  a  lower  head  weighing  125  tons,  and 
capable  of  exerting  a  pressure  of  7000  tons  is  used  for  this  purpose. 
Under  this  enormous  pressure  air  bubbles  are  forced  out,  blow-holes 
cannot  form,  piping  cannot  occur,  and  segregation  is  reduced  to  a 
minimum.  This  pressure  is  kept  up  until  the  ingot  has  solidified, 
and  as  a  result  gives  a  solid,  flawless  mass  of  steel  which  maintains 
the  intended  chemical  composition. 

The  steam  hammer  and  hydraulic  press  play  important  parts 
in  the  manufacture  of  steel,  but  the  hammer  is  being  rapidly  driven 
out  of  business  by  the  press.  As  recently  as  1891  the  Bethlehem 
Steel  Company  built  the  largest  steam  hammer  in  the  world,  stand- 
ing 70  feet  above  the  floor,  the  hammer  head,  weighing  125  tons  and 
having  a  stroke  of  20  feet,  falling  upon  an  anvil  of  metal  which 
weighed  2150  pounds,  and  yet  the  progress  of  a  single  decade  has 
rendered  obsolete  this  $1,000,000  hammer. 


) 


/ 


34O          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

Figure  I  shows  the  result  of  hammering  a  piece  of  steel.      Only 
the  surface  is  worked  and   is  longer  than  the  center,  producing  a  V- 
shaped  end.      This  sets  up  strains  within  and  may  even 
split  or  tear   loose  from  the  center,  rendering  the  piece 
useless.      Again,  working  only  the  surface  does  not  de- 
velop  the  strength  of  the  interior  and  produces  an  in- 
Hg.1.  ferior  article. 

Figure  2  shows  the  result  produced  by  using  a  steady  pressure 
which  causes  the  metal  to  "  flow"  and  bulge  out  in  the 
center,  thus  showing  that  the  entire  thickness  of  the 
forging  is  acted  upon  by  the  pressure. 

The  piping  and  segregation,  likely  to  occur  in  large 
Fig.2.  ingots,  are  now  removed  whenever  possible  by  boring  a 
hole  through  them  and  making  them  into  hollow  forgings.  A  shaft 
in  this  way  can  be  decreased  25  per  cent,  in  weight  and  the  material 
improved  so  much  in  quality  that  the  loss  of  strength  will  be  only 
about  6  per  cent.,  and  this  is  the  method  commonly  employed  for 
propeller  shafts  for  steamships. 

Large  shafts  must  be  reheated  many  times  before  the  forging  is 
completed,  and  as  each  reheating  may  take  from  two  to  three  days, 
a  saving  of  time  is  no  small  item.  Reference  to 
Figure  3  shows  that  the  distance  from  c  to  d  is 
less  than  half  the  distance  from  a  to  b.  By 
boring  out  the  center  a  greater  surface  is  exposed 
to  the  heat  and  less  than  half  the  thickness  of 
metal  has  to  be  heated,  so  a  saving  of  time  and 
fuel  is  effected.  When  large,  solid  forgings  are  heated  the  surface 
metal  expands  faster  than  the  core  and  sometimes  cracks  loose  from 
it  ;  in  cooling,  the  outside  contracts  faster  than  the  core  and  some- 
times cracks  on  the  surface.  These  troubles  are  obviated  by  remov- 
ing the  core. 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  34! 

Annealing.  If  a  steel  ingot  is  cooled  slowly  from  the  point 
where  it  begins  to  get  solid  the  temperature  falls  to  between  1200 
and  1300°  Fahrenheit  and  there  remains  stationary  for  a  time.  This 
point  is  known  as  the  recalescent  point,  and  chemical  and  physical 
tests  show  that  a  change  in  the  physical  structure  of  the  steel  occurs 
at  that  point  and  there  the  process  of  crystallization  seems  to  come 
to  a  halt.  Now  if  the  steel  be  heated  to  any  point  below  the 
recalescent  point  the  crystallization  will  not  be  changed.  If  the 
steel  be  allowed  to  cool  slowly,  it  forms  large  crystals,  and  if  it  then 
be  heated  above  the  recalescent  point  the  crystallization  will  be 
found  smaller  than  before.  Now  since  the  temperature  can  wholly 
change  the  crystallization  of  a  piece  of  steel  it  is  plain  that  heat 
bears  an  important  part  in  manufacture.  When  steel  is  suddenly 
heated  and  put  under  the  hammer  or  press  and  forged  the  crystals 
are  driven  about  and  made  to  assume  positions  not  natural  to  them 
and,  when  cooled  quickly,  internal  strains  are  set  up,  greatly  reducing 
the  strength  of  the  material.  If  the  forging  then  be  heated  slowly 
and  allowed  to  cool  slowly  it  gives  the  particles  within  a  chance  to 
rearrange  and  adapt  themselves  to  their  new  environment  and  re- 
lieves the  piece  of  these  strains.  After  annealing  the  forging  can 
again  be  heated  and  tempered,  for  it  is  not  necessary  to  raise  it  to  a 
high  temperature  to  temper  it. 

Alloys.  The  tensile  strength  of  a  piece  of  metal  is  the  pull  or 
tension  required  to  break  it.  The  elastic  limit  is  the  pull  it  will 
endure  without  permanently  stretching.  Nickel  as  an  alloy  increases 
the  elastic  limit  more  than  it  does  the  tensile  strength,  that  is,  in  a 
good  grade  of  common  steel  the  elastic  limit  would  be  about  47  per 
cent,  of  the  tensile  strength,  but  in  the  propeller  shafts  of  the  cruiser 
Brooklyn,  where  nickel  steel  was  employed,  the  elastic  limit  is  63  per 
cent,  on  a  tensile  strength  of  93,000  pounds  per  square  inch,  Later 
improvements  have  been  made  and  now  the  tensile  strength  of 


342  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

propeller  shafts  for  torpedo  boats  frequently  runs  over  100,000 
pounds  per  square  inch,  with  an  elastic  limit  68  per  cent,  of  the 
tensile  strength.  It  is  because  nickel  added  to  steel  increases  its 
tensile  limit  that  nickel-steel  armor  is  able  to  withstand  the  heavy 
shocks  of  the  projectiles  from  powerful  guns  without  breaking, 
whereas  ordinary  steel  as  hard  but  not  having  the  same  toughness 
would  crack  and  break  up. 

Chromium  and  tungsten  in  moderate  amounts  are  used  as  alloys 
with  steel,  to  impart  special  hardening  properties,  rendering  it  useful 
for  cutting  tools  and  for  armor-piercing  projectiles.  Manganese  in 
any  considerable  quantity  makes  steel  so  remarkably  tough  and  hard 
as  to  render  machining  impracticable.  Aluminum  seems  to  increase 
the  fluidity  of  steel  and  aids  in  preventing  the  formation  of  blow- 
holes in  castings.  Much  attention  has  been  given  to  alloys  and 
many  patents  issued  covering  them. 

Testing  Steel.  Before  a  large  quantity  of  steel  is  accepted  by 
any  important  manufacturing  plant  one  or  more  pieces  from  each 
batch  of  steel  are  taken  out  and  subjected  to  certain  tests  and  if  they 
do  not  come  up  to  the  standard  the  whole  batch  is  rejected.  It  is 
important  to  know  just  how  much  stress  any  material  will  stand  with- 
out changing  its  form.  Engineers  call  this  the  elastic  limit,  and  if 
the  elastic  limit  is  exceeded  the  steel  changes  its  shape,,  becomes 
weakened,  and  never  returns  to  its  original  form.  Usually  the  test 
pieces  are  about  two  inches  long  and  one  half  inch  square  at  the  part 
to  be  tested,  the  ends  being  left  larger  so  as  to  afford  a  good  grip  for 
the  jaws  of  the  testing  machine.  The  test  piece  is  cut  out  the  full 
size  and  then  machined  down  in  the  middle  instead  of  forging,  for  if 
it  were  forged  there  would  be  more  work  done  and  it  would  not 
show  the  true  quality  of  the  mass  it  was  supposed  to  represent. 
The  testing  machines  as  now  built  record  accurately  a  pull  or  a  push 
as  the  case  may  be,  ranging  from  a  fraction  of  an  ounce  to  millions 


IRON   AND    STEEL    WORKING.  343 

of  pounds.  The  test  piece  is  placed  in  the  jaws  of  the  machine  and 
the  force  gradually  applied  until  the  piece  begins  to  stretch.  This 
should  require  from  29,000  to  60,000  pounds  per  square  inch  in 
good  steel.  More  force  is  applied  until  the  piece  is  drawn  out  and 
broken  and  for  this  a  force  of  from  58,000  to  90,000  pounds  should 
be  required.  The  variation  is  due  to  the  fact  that  there  are  many 
kinds  of  steel  each  with  characteristics  of  its  own.  As  a  rule  the 
poorer  grades  stretch  most,  but  even  the  better  ones  will  stretch  22 
per  cent,  before  breaking.  The  broken  ends  are  examined  with  a 
microscope,  the  hardness  tested,  a  chemical  analysis  made  and  the 
exact  proportion  of  each  ingredient  found  out. 

The  testing  machine  made  for  the  government  by  A.  H.  Emery 
is  probably  the  most  accurate  in  the  world.  It  is  employed  at  the 
Watertown  Arsenal  and  can  exert  a  pressure  of  more  than  1,000,000 
pounds  or  a  pull  of  more  than  800,000  pounds.  The  machine  will 
test  a  bar  31  feet  long  for  compression  and  37  feet  3  inches  long  for 
tensile  strength.  The  ram  or  straining  cylinder  is  20  inches  in  diame- 
ter and  has  a  24-inch  stroke.  The  Union  Bridge  Company  of 
Athens,  Pa.,  has  one  with  a  capacity  of  1,224,000  pounds  that  can 
break  a  bar  40  feet  long,  while  the  Phoenix  Bridge  Company  of  Phce- 
nixville,  Pa.,  has  one  with  a  capacity  of  2,160,000  that  can  break  a 
bar  45  feet  long.  Smaller  testing  machines  of  the  same  type  are 
used  elsewhere,  and  many  other  varieties,  but  the  Emery  is  recog- 
nized as  having  no  superiors.  Its  accuracy  is  so  generally  recognized 
that  the  large  manufacturing  establishments  constantly  compare  their 
machines  with  that  at  the  Watertown  Arsenal,  just  as  a  man  com- 
pares his  watch  with  a  chronometer.  The  machine  itself  is  too  com- 
plicated to  be  described  within  the  limits  of  this  article,  but  the 
stresses  are  produced  by  a  movable  ram.  If  great  force  is  required, 
the  ram  is  operated  by  hydraulic  pressure;  if  the  strain  is  to  be  a 
light  one,  screw  power  is  used.  Great  force  is  sometimes  necessary 


344  THE    MARVELS    OF  MODERN    MECHANISM. 

for  small  pieces,  as  wire,  small  rods,  etc.,  show  a  higher  tensile 
strength  than  the  same  material  in  larger  pieces.  A  link  of  iron  5 
inches  in  diameter  was  broken  with  a  stress  of  36,000  pounds  per 
square  inch.  The  same  metal  in  the  form  of  an  inch  bar  required 
60,000  pounds  to  break  it,  hence  the  very  obvious  necessity  of  hav- 
ing a  machine  strong  enough  to  break  large  pieces. 

Enormous  as  is  the  strength  of  the  Emery  machine,  its  deli- 
cacy is  no  less  amazing.  It  can  exert  a  compressing  force  of  1,000- 
ooo  pounds  and  the  next  minute  crack  egg  shells  and  nuts  placed 
between  its  jaws.  It  can  pull  in  two  an  iron  bar  5  inches  in  diame- 
ter and  immediately  after  measure  the  force  required  to  break  a 
horse  hair  and  show  how  much  the  hair  stretches  before  it  breaks. 
If  a  violin  string  be  attached  and  strained  until  it  gives  a  musical 
tone  it  will  measure  the  exact  amount  of  force  required  to  change  its 
pitch. 

The  specifications  for  every  important  building,  bridge,  or  ma- 
chine nowadays  constructed  state  tests  which  the  materials  must 
undergo.  The  efficiency  of  the  structure  and  the  safety  of  the  pub- 
lic demand  that  these  tests  be  carefully  and  accurately  made  and  that 
materials  be  able  to  support  much  greater  loads  than  are  likely  to  be 
placed  upon  them  in  actual  service.  The  weight  of  a  bridge  across 
a  stream,  the  pressure  of  the  wind,  and  the  weight  of  the  loads  the 
bridge  must  sustain  can  be  pretty  accurately  estimated.  Plans  can 
then  be  drawn  for  a  bridge  of  certain  dimensions,  requiring  materials 
to  stand  tests  that  give  a  margin  of  safety.  In  building  a  cannon 
the  weight  of  the  projectile  and  the  force  of  the  powder  charge  can 
be  accurately  determined  and,  if  the  strength  of  the  materials  be 
known,  a  gun  produced  that  can  be  safely  used.  It  was  the  neces- 
sity for  accurate  information  of  this  kind  that  brought  out  the  vari- 
ous testing  machines  which  have  culminated  in  that  of  Emery. 

Taylor-White  Tool  Steel.     An  important    gain   in  the  working 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  345 

of  metals  was  lately  made  at  Bethlehem,  Pa.,  because  the  forge  de- 
partment of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Company  exceeded  in  capacity 
the  shop  where  the  forgings  were  finished.  An  enlargement  of  the 
shop,  likely  to  cost  a  million  or  more  dollars,  seemed  necessary. 
Before  spending  the  money,  however,  it  was  decided  to  make  ex- 
periments to  see  if  the  capacity  of  the  shop  could  not  be  increased 
by  improving  the  tools.  It  was  while  experimenting  on  the  tools 
used  in  the  lathes  that  Messrs.  Taylor  and  White  made  their  im- 
portant discovery  that  steel  of  a  special  composition  could  be  so 
tempered  that  it  would  retain  its  cutting  edge  at  a  temperature  twice 
as  high  as  the  limit  of  steel  from  which  tools  are  usually  made. 
Ordinarily,  steel  loses  its  temper  for  cutting  purposes  at  about 
500°  Fahrenheit  but  the  Taylor- White  steel  holds  its  temper  up  to 
noo  or  1200  degrees  and  will  actually  work  in  the  lathe  cutting 
good  smooth  chips  after  the  friction  of  the  work  has  raised  the  tool 
to  a  dull  red  heat.  The  gain  was  evident.  Where  they  formerly 
cut  8  feet  11  inches  a  minute  they  can  now  cut  more  than  25  feet, 
increasing  also  the  depth  and  the  width  of  the  cut.  The  number  of 
pounds  of  metal  removed  per  hour  averaged  under  the  old  process 
in  October,  1898,  31.18  pounds  per  tool;  in  May,  1899,  with  new 
process,  81.52  pounds  per  tool ;  in  January,  1900,  137.3  pounds  per 
tool.  The  cutting  speed  had  been  raised  183  per  cent,  and  the 
metal  removed  increased  340  per  cent.  The  line  shafts  of  the  shop 
that  formerly  ran  at  90  revolutions  per  minute  were  speeded  up  to 
250  revolutions  per  minute,  and  the  forge  was  pushed  to  its  utmost 
capacity  to  keep  the  shop  supplied  with  forgings.  The  $1,000,000 
addition  contemplated  had  been  saved  but  in  the  experiments  more 
than  200  tons  of  steel  forgings  had  been  cut  into  chips,  with  an  ex- 
penditure for  material  and  labor  of  over  $100,000. 

The  Taylor- White  tool  steel  is  softer  than  that  of  other  self-hard- 
ening steels,  and  4-inch  bars  can  be  successfully  treated  by  the  proc- 


346  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

ess.  The  same  process  improves  Mushet  and  other  self-hardening 
steels  but  not  in  the  same  proportion  that  it  does  the  special  com- 
position of  the  Taylor- White  steel. 

The  use  of  iron  was  unknown  to  the  inhabitants  of  America 
prior  to  the  discovery  of  the  continent  by  the  white  man.  The  in- 
habitants of  Mexico  and  Peru  who  were  most  advanced  in  the  arts 
of  civilization  used  copper  as  a  substitute,  while  among  the  North 
American  Indians,  stone  was  used.  Archaeologists  have  found  in 
the  ancient  mounds  of  Ohio  masses  of  meteoric  iron  from  which  im- 
plements and  ornaments  were  made  by  hammering,  and  the  Green- 
land Eskimos  made  knives  and  other  weapons  from  native  ore  found 
in  Greenland,  but  always  by  hammering,  not  by  melting  and  casting. 
The  first  iron  ore  discovered  in  America  was  that  found  by  an  ex- 
pedition to  North  Carolina  in  1585  fitted  out  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh 
to  make  a  settlement  at  Roanoke.  Hariot,  the  historian  of  the 
colony,  says,  "The  ground  by  rockie  which  by  the  triall  of  a  minerall 
man  was  founde  to  hold  iron  richly.  It  is  founde  in  manie  places  of 
the  countrey  else."  But  Raleigh's  colonists  were  in  search  of  gold 
and  were  not  interested  in  iron. 

The  records  of  the  colony  at  Jamestown,  Virginia,  show  that  in 
1608  Captain  Newport  "  sailed  from  Jamestown  with  a  cargo  of  iron 
ore,  sassafras,  cedar  posts,  and  walnut  boards."  Skilled  workmen 
were  sent  to  the  Virginia  colony  and  the  construction  of  a  furnace 
was  begun,  but  the  foreman  died  and  the  others  were  killed  off  by 
the  Indians.  No  further  attempt  to  manufacture  iron  appears  to 
have  been  made  there  for  almost  a  hundred  years,  but  in  the  next 
century  Virginia  became  prominent  in  the  manufacture  of  iron. 

The  first  successful  iron  works  in  America  were  established  near 
Lynn,  Massachusetts.  "In  1643  Mr.  John  Winthrop  came  from 
England  with  workmen  and  stock  to  the  amount  of  ^1000  for  com- 
mencing the  work.  A  foundry  was  erected  on  the  western  bank  of 


IRON   AND    STEKL   WORKING.  347 

the  Saugus  river."  This  was  near  Lynn,  and  it  was  the  first  iron 
foundry  established  in  America.  The  first  iron  article  made  from 
native  iron  ore  in  America  was  cast  here  in  1645.  It  was 
an  iron  pot  weighing  two  pounds  thirteen  ounces,  and 
holding  a  little  less  than  one  quart. 

A  furnace  built  at  Middleboro,  Mass.,  in  1758,  was 
operated  for  many  years  and  is  said  to  have  cast  shot 
used  in  two  wars,  furnishing;  those  for  the  Constitution  in  First  iron  Article 

Manufactured  in 

her  conflict  with  the  Guerriere. 

The  first  iron  foundry  at  Pittsburg  was  built  about  1805  on  the 
site  of  the  present  post  office.  In  1812  it  was  turned  into  a  cannon 
foundry  for  the  general  government,  making  shot,  howitzers,  and 
cannon.  This  foundry  is  credited  with  having  furnished  the  supplies 
for  Perry's  fleet  on  Lake  Erie  and  Jackson's  army  at  New  Orleans. 

William  Penn  encouraged  the  manufacture  of  iron  in  his  colo- 
ny, where  it  was  produced  at  least  as  early  as  1692,  and  Pennsylvania 
soon  achieved  the  prominent  place  in  the  iron  industry  which  she 
has  since  so  ably  maintained. 

For  some  reason  ironmasters  and  their  descendants  played  a  very 
prominent  part  in  the  history  of  the  new  country.  Washington's 
father  was  interested  in  iron  furnaces  in  Maryland  and  Virginia. 
Lincoln  was  descended  from  Mordecai  Lincoln,  an  ironmaster  of 
Scituate,  Mass.  Franklin,  if  not  directly  interested  in  the  manu- 
facture of  iron,  at  least  had  friends  who  were,  and  the  celebrated 
stove  invented  by  him  in  1792  was  cast  at  the  Warwick  furnace  on 
French  Creek,  nineteen  miles  from  Reading.  The  same  foundry  was 
afterward  active  in  casting  cannon. 

Ethan  Allen  was  also  interested  in  the  manufacture  of  iron,  and 
Generals  Greene  and  Morgan  were  the  sons  of  ironmasters,  while 
several  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  were  con- 
nected with  some  branch  of  the  industry.  One  of  them,  George 


348  MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

Taylor,  born  in  Ireland,  was  so  poor  that  to  get  to  America  he  was 
obliged  to  sell  his  services  and  go  as  a  "  redemptioner."  He  after- 
ward worked  in  a  most  humble  capacity  in  an  iron  furnace,  yet  be- 
came, himself,  an  ironmaster  and  a  man  of  wide  influence.  Ericsson 
owed  no  small  part  of  his  success  with  the  Monitor  to  the  support 
given  him  by  his  financial  backers,  John  A.  Griswold  and  John  A. 
Winslow.  There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  the  executive 
ability  required  to  manage  the  great  iron  and  steel  manufacturing  es- 
tablishments of  to-day  could  achieve  distinction  in  the  political  field. 

The  first  iron  works  in  Canada  were  established  at  St.  Maurice 
near  Three  Rivers  in  the  province  of  Quebec.  Count  Frontenac  in 
1667  discovered  iron  ore  and  in  1672  reported  that  he  had  com- 
menced to  mine  it  at  Three  Rivers  for  export  to  France.  He  strongly 
urged  the  development  of  the  mines  and  the  establishment  of  fur- 
naces and  foundries.  "  King  Louis  XV.  gave  a  royal  license  in  1730 
to  a  company  to  work  the  iron  ores  of  St.  Maurice  and  the  vicinity, 
and  advanced  10,000  livres  for  aid  in  erecting  the  furnace,  etc.  No 
work  being  done,  he  took  back  the  license  and  in  1735  granted  it  to 
a  new  company,  which  received  100,000  livres  in  aid  and  in  1737 
built  a  blast  furnace.  In  1743,  however,  the  works  reverted  to  the 
crown  and  were  worked  for  the  king's  profit/'  * 

The  St.  Maurice  works  continued  in  active  operation  until  1760, 
when  Canada  passed  into  the  possession  of  the  British  government. 
Then  for  nearly  a  hundred  years  the  crown  leased  the  works  to  vari- 
ous companies.  They  were  finally  closed  in  1883  because  the  ore  and 
fuel  had  become  exhausted.  But  the  St.  Maurice  furnace,  erected 
in  1737  and  closed  in  1883,  had  the  longest  record  of  service  of  any  on 
the  American  continent. 

Canada  is  rich  in  ore  deposits  and  is  rapidly  developing  her 
mineral  resources  which  she  has  wisely  fostered  by  government  aid. 

*Dr.  T.  Sterry  Hunt. 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  349 

"The  bounty  act  of  June  29,  1897,  provides  that  premiums  shall  be 
paid  on  iron  and  steel  products  as  follows:  "  On  steel  ingots  puddled 
into  bars  and  pig  iron  a  bonus  of  $3  per  ton  is  to  be  paid,  provided 
at  least  50  per  cent,  of  the  steel  product  is  made  from  Canadian  pig 
iron.  On  steel  ingots  and  derived  product  not  made  from  Canadian 
pig  iron,  a  bonus  of  $2  per  ton  is  paid.  The  act  of  August  11, 
1899,  extended  the  bounty  to  June  30,  1907,  but  at  a  diminishing 
rate  of  premium  as  follows  :  After  June  30,  1903,  the  above  premiums 
will  be  paid  on  only  90  per  cent,  of  the  respective  products,  and  for 
each  successive  year  on  a  smaller  per  cent,  of  the  output,  namely,  on 
75  per  cent.,  55  per  cent.,  35  per  cent.,  and  20  per  cent.,  ending 
with  June  30,  1907.  By  that  time  presumably  the  experimental 
stage  of  production  will  have  ended  and  the  industry  will  be  on  a 
self-sustaining  basis."  '"" 

In  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  output  of  pig  iron  in 
Canada  has  increased  more  than  25  fold.  In  1892  Canada  exported 
three  tons  of  iron  valued  at  $95;  in  1899,  more  than  2000  tons 
valued  at  more  than  $50,000.  The  United  States  takes  about  three 
fifths  of  Canada's  export.  The  following  table  shows  the  output  of 
Canadian  pig  iron  from  1876  to  1899,  the  amount  exported  and  its 
value  from  1892  to  1899.  The  stimulus  of  the  bounty  in  1897  is  ap- 
parent :  — 

Year  Tons  produced  Year  Tons  produced  Tons  exported  Value 

1876  4,000  1888         22,209 

1877  i3>5°°  l889  24,823 

1878  16,000  1890  25,697 

1879  16,500  1891  20,153 

1880  23,000  1892  30,294  3         $95 

1881  18,500  1893  46,948  12         330 

1882  21,500  1894  62,522 

1883  32,000  1895  31^692  259        6,202 

1884  29,389  1896  52,052  1,940       45»363 

1885  25,770  1897  33,254  2,627       65,555 

1886  26,180  1898  75,920  2,403       61,029 

1887  39,717  1899  100,926  2,188       5°>767 


*  Commerce  and  finance 


350  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

The  ore  beds  of  Newfoundland  are  wonderfully  rich  in  red 
hematite,  the  Wabana  beds  being  3  miles  long,  several  hundred  feet 
wide,  and  with  about  35,000,000  tons  in  sight  (1901),  while  their 
proximity  to  tide  water  and  ease  of  working  renders  them  dangerous 
competitors  for  mines  not  so  advantageously  situated.  The  ore  can 
be  taken  from  the  mines  and  placed  on  board  ship  for  about  25  cents 
per  ton,  the  freight  to  Canada  25  cents  more;  to  Europe  or  the 
United  States,  only  50  cents  per  ton.  Germany  and  the  United 
States  are  extensive  purchasers  of  Newfoundland  ore. 

Russia  has  almost  boundless  deposits  of  iron  ore  that  are  practi- 
cally untouched,  but  as  they  lie  so  far  from  the  seaports  and  her 
transportation  system  is  so  poorly  developed,  she  is  not  likely  for 
many  years  to  become  a  serious  competitor  of  the  leading  nations. 

In  the  following  table  the  first  column  gives  the  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  second  the  population  of  the  United  States 
for  the  corresponding  decades,  the  third  the  approximate  production 
of  pig  iron,  the  fourth  the  average  number  of  persons  to  each  ton 
produced. 

Year  Population  Tons  of  Iron  Produced  Inhabitants  per  Ton 

1810  7,240,000  54,000  134 

1820  9,655,000  2O,OOO  483 

1830  12,866,000  165,000  78 

1840  17,063,000  315,000  54 

1850  23,192,000  565,000  41 

1860  3  [,443,000  900,000  35 

1870  38,558,000  1,865,000  21 

l88o  50,156,000  4,295,OOO  12 

1890  62,481,000  9,202,703  7 

1900  76,295,220          13,620,703*  6t 

In  1 8 10  only  one  ton  of  iron  was  produced  for  every  134  people; 
at  the  close  of  the  century  more  than  a  ton  was  produced  for  every 


1899.     ^Commerce  and  Finance. 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  351 

6  inhabitants,  and  as  but  comparatively  little  of  it  was  exported  as 
raw  material  practically  all  of  it  was  used  to  improve  means  of  com- 
munication or  transportation,  or  entered  as  finished  products  into  the 
industrial  life  of  the  nation.  It  is  safe  to  say  the  value  of  the  iron, 
steel,  and  articles  manufactured  from  them  for  a  single  .year  exceeds 
the  entire  wealth  of  the  country  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

The  production  and  consumption  of  iron  bear  a  close  relation  to 
the  prosperity  and  wealth  of  a  country,  for  with  these  is  indissolu- 
bly  linked  the  transportation  system  and  its  manufacturing  and  agri- 
cultural interests.  The  United  States  has  risen  within  a  quarter 
century  from  a  comparatively  low  position  in  the  iron  industry  to  the 
greatest  iron  producing  country  in  the  world.  But  a  short  time  ago 
articles  of  iron  manufacture  played  but  a  small  part  in  her  exports; 
now  they  constitute  more  than  50  per  cent,  of  the  manufactured  arti- 
cles exported.  Her  locomotives  wake  the  echoes  in  the  Highlands 
of  Scotland,  the  steppes  of  Russia,  the  forests  of  Brazil,  and  the  land 
of  the  Pharaohs.  American  typewriters  go  to  every  civilized  coun- 
try on  earth  and  markets  for  manufactured  goods  that  were  supposed 
to  have  been  controlled  by  the  older  countries  are  now  witnessing 
the  advent  of  American  manufactures.  Improved  machinery,  econ- 
omy in  methods,  and  great  organizations  have  increased  so  immensely 
the  production  of  the  United  States  that  the  home  markets  are  no 
longer  sufficient,  and  American  goods  are  now  knocking  at  the  doors 
of  all  the  markets  of  the  world. 

The  following  table  shows  by  tons  the  pig  iron  production 
of  the  five  leading  countries  of  the  world.  Has  it  no  significance 
that  the  production  of  France,  like  its  population,  shows  but  little 
increase,  while  that  of  her  rival,  Germany,  progresses  by  leaps  and 
bounds? 


352  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

Years  United  States  Great  Britain  Germany  France  Russia 


1870 

1,665,179 

5,963,515 

1,391,124 

1,178,114 

359.531 

1875 

2,023,733 

6,365,462 

2,029,389 

1,448,272 

427,182 

1880 

3,835,191 

7>749»233 

2,729,038 

1.725,293 

448,411 

1885 

4,044,526 

7,415,469 

3,687,434 

1,630,648 

527,536 

1890 

9,202,703 

7,904,214 

4,658,451 

1,962,196 

926,482 

1895 

9,446,308 

7.703,459 

5,465,414 

2,003,868 

1,452,380 

1896 

8,623,127 

8,659,681 

6,372,575 

2.339.537 

1,612,069 

1897 

9,652,680 

8,796,465 

6,881,466 

2,484,191 

1,868,671 

1898  11,773,934     8,609,719     7,312,766     2,525,075   2,222,469 

1899  13,620,703     9,305,319     8,142,017     2,567,388    2,672,492  * 

England  has  done  more  than  any  other  country  to  bring  to  its 
present  high  state  of  perfection  the  iron  industry.  An  able  authority 
credits  her  as  follows :  — 

"  The  whole  world  is  indebted  to  England  and  Scotland  for  the 
inventions  which  gave  a  fresh  impetus  to  the  manufacture  of  iron  in 
the  eighteenth  century.  Payne  and  Hanbury,  who  first  succeeded 
in  rolling  sheet  iron ;  Darby,  who  first  successfully  and  continuous!)^ 
used  coke  in  the  blast  furnace;  Huntsman,  who  invented  the  process 
of  making  steel  in  crucibles;  Smeaton,  who  invented  cast  iron  blow- 
ing cylinders;  and  Cort,  who  invented  grooved  rolls  and  the  puddling 
furnace,  were  Englishmen ;  while  Watt,  who  perfected  the  steam 
engine,  was  a  Scotchman.  It  is  also  indebted  to  the  same  countries 
for  most  of  the  inventions  of  the  present  century  which  have  further 
developed  the  manufacture  of  iron  and  increased  the  demand  for  it, 
and  which  have  almost  created  the  manufacture  of  steel.  Stephen- 
son,  the  Englishman,  improved  the  locomotive  in  1815,  and  in  1825 
the  first  passenger  railroad  in  the  world  was  opened  in  England,  his 
locomotive  hauling  the  trains.  The  railroad  is  the  greatest  of  all  the 
consumers  of  iron  and  steel.  Neilson,  the  Scotchman,  invented  the 
hot-blast  in  1828;  Crane,  the  Englishman,  applied  it  to  the  manu- 
facture of  pig  iron  with  anthracite  coal  in  1837;  Nasmyth,  the 
Scotchman,  invented  the  steam  hammer  in  1838  and  the  pile  driver 


*  Commerce  and  Finance. 


IRON   AND    STEEL    WORKING.  353 

in  1843;  and  Bessemer,  the  Englishman,  invented  in  1855  the  proc- 
ess which  bears  his  name  and  is  the  flower  of  all  metallurgical 
achievements,  a  share  in  the  honor  of  this  invention,  however,  being 
fairly  due  to  the  co-operating  genius  of  Robert  F.  Mushet,  also  an 
Englishman  but  born  of  Scotch  parentage.  The  Siemens  regenera- 
tive gas  furnace,  which  has  been  so  extensively  used  in  the  manufac- 
ture 'of  iron  and  steel,  is  also  an  English  invention,  although  the 
inventors,  Sir  William  and  Frederick  Siemens,  while  citizens  of  Eng- 
land, were  natives  of  Hanover  in  Germany. 

"It  is  only  just  to  add  that  Sir  Henry  Bessemer,  although  born 
in  England,  is  the  son  of  a  French  refugee  who  settled  in  England 
during  the  French  Revolution  of  1789,  and  that  Benjamin  Hunts- 
man, the  inventor  of  the  process  for  manufacturing  cast  steel  in 
crucibles,  was  the  son  of  German  parents,  although  himself  born  in 
England.  Mr.  Goran  F.  Goransson,  of  Sandviken,  Sweden,  also 
assisted  in  perfecting  the  Bessemer  process.  It  was,  however,  enter- 
prising and  sturdy  England  which  nursed  the  genius  of  the  great  in- 
ventors we  have  mentioned  who  were  of  continental  birth  or  extrac- 
tion, and  it  was  in  England  that  the  ripe  fruits  of  their  inventions 
were  first  abundantly  gathered."* 

BRIDGES. 
If  Milton's  information  was  accurate  when  he  said, 

'  Deep  to  the  roots  of  Hell  the  gathered  breech 
They  fastened,  and  the  mole  immense  brought  on, 
Over  the  foaming  deep,  high-arched,  a  bridge 
Of  length  prodigious,  joining  to  the  wall 
Immovable  of  this  now  fenceless  world," 

we  may  conclude  that  the  first  bridge  was  a  military  bridge  built  by 
Satan  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  the  advantage  he  had  gained, 
and  extending  from  his  dominions  through  Chaos  to  the  Earth.  But 


*Swank.     "  Iron  in  all  Ages." 


354 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


OLD  ROPE  BRIDGE  IN  THE  ANDES. 


Milton  does  not  give  the  exact  date  of  this  engineering  feat,  neither 
have  antiquarians  been  able  to  find  the  earthly  abutment,  so  the 
history  of  bridges  may  be  presumed  to  commence  with  some  later 
date. 

It    has   been   held  that    the  art  of   bridge   building  is   an   instinct 

transmitted  from  primitive 
ancestors.  Certainly  the 
suspension  bridges  made 
of  thongs  of  rawhide  and 
ropes  of  vegetable  fiber 
which  were  early  used  in 
Chili  and  Peru  were  not 
many  steps  removed  from 
the  interlacing  boughs  of 
the  adjacent  trees  of  trop- 
ical forests. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  when  or  where  the  first  bridge  was 
built,  but  wooden  bridges  were  described  at  least  as  early  as  I2OO 
B.  C.,  and  Homer  in  his  poems  speaks  of  bridges.  Until  the 
archives  of  Egypt  and  Assyria  yield  their  knowledge,  the  history  of 
bridge  building  must  be  held  to  have  begun  with  the  Romans,  al- 
though the  wickerwork  bridges  of  India  are  mentioned  as  far  back  as 
the  history  of  the  country  goes. 

Suspension  bridges  made  of  iron  chains  and  more  than  500  years 
old  are  in  use  in  Japan  to-day,  although  made  in  a  time  when  iron 
was  so  valuable  to  the  civilized  nations  that  the  natives  of  Scotland 
made  frequent  raids  into  England  largely  for  the  sake  of  the  iron  they 
were  able  to  carry  off  as  spoil.  Iron  truss  bridges  had  been  in 
use  in  Japan  for  200  years  when  Stephenson  was  building  his  tubular 
bridge. 

The   Romans  held  the  art  of  bridge  making  in  such  great  rever- 


IRON    AND    STEEL    WORKING. 


355 


ence  that  when  the  first  stone  arch  of  the  Pons  Sublicius  was  thrown 
across  the  Tiber  at  Rome  on  the  site  of  the  famous  wooden  bridge 
defended  by  Horatius,  a  special  order  of  priests  was  established  to 
foster  the  art,  and  those  who  belonged  to  the  order  had 
important  privileges,  while  the  title  "  Pontifex  "  was  one 
of  the  greatest  honors. 

The  oldest  bridge  in  the  world  is  the 
Roman  bridge,  Pont  du  Gard,  at  Mines, 
France,  built  by  M.  Agrippa  in  the  year  19 
B.  C.  It  is  873  feet  long  and  160  feet  high, 
has  three  tiers  of  arches,  and  is  still  in  use. 

The  longest  stone  arch  bridge  ever  made 
was  built  in  1380  by  Visconti  over  the 
Adda  river  near  Terezzo,  Italy,  the  top  of 
the  arch  rising  88  feet  above  its  ends  in  a 
span  of  25  i  feet. 

The  longest  existing  span  of  solid  ma- 
sonry is  that  of  the  Cabin  John  bridge  near 
Washington,  D.  C.  It  is  220  feet  long  and 
was  built  in  1859  to  carry  an  aqueduct  9  feet  in  diameter  to  furnish 
the  water  supply  for  the  national  capital.  The  upper  surface  of  the 
water  conduit  is  covered  and  forms  a  fine  roadway.  The  bridge  was 
begun  in  1857  and  finished  in  1864  at  a  cost  of  $254,000.  It  is  450 
feet  long  with  a  span  of  220  feet,  the  top  of  the  structure  being 
about  100  feet  above  the  bed  of  the  stream. 

Joseph  Melan  invented  a  bridge  combining  a  steel  arch  with  the 
stability  of  masonry.  By  this  method  a  steel  arch  is  constructed  in 
position  and  imbedded  in  concrete,  which  solidifies  and  makes  an  arch 
of  almost  solid  stone  with  a  steel  skeleton,  thus  doing  away  with  the 
vibration  of  the  steel  arch  while  the  concrete  stiffens  the  structure 
and  protects  the  steel  within  from  the  air  and  moisture.  Such  a 


NATURAL  BRIDGE,  VA. 


356  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

bridge  at  Steyr,  Hungary,  has  a  span  of  137.76  feet,  the  arch  rising 
only  nine  feet.  The  Cabin  John  bridge  and  the  Niagara  bridge  are 
good  illustrations  of  the  arch  bridge. 

The  old  London  bridge,  once  the  only  bridge  across  the  Thames, 
was  so  narrow  that  two  carts  could  not  pass  on  it,  so  in  1671  a 
troublesome,  progressive  gentleman,  name  unknown,  applied  to  the 
House  of  Commons  for  permission  to  build  another  bridge  and  pre- 
cipitated one  of  the  warmest  debates  that  ever  occurred  in  that 
body.  It  was  urged  by  its  opponents  that  the  bridge  would  remove 
the  condition  which  forced  commerce  to  flow  through  London ;  that 
it  would  make  the  skirts  of  the  city  too  large  for  the  body;  that  it 
would  impede  navigation ;  that  it  would  render  the  city  ungovern- 
able ;  that  if  permission  were  granted  to  build  one  bridge  some  one 
would  soon  want  to  build  a  third,  and  no  one  could  tell  where  the 
pernicious  practice  would  end.  Such  sound  reasoning  prevailed  and 
London  waited  until  1750  for  a  second  bridge. 

The  first  iron  bridge  of  considerable  size,  with  the  exception  of 
the  chain  bridges  of  Japan  and  short  suspension  bridges  used  by 
miners  in  the  North  of  England,  was  begun  at  Lyons  in  1755  but 
abandoned  because  the  material  was  too  costly.  The  next  to  be  at- 
tempted and  the  first  to  be  carried  to  completion  was  built  in  1777 
over  the  Severn  at  Coalbrookdale,  England.  It  was  made  of  cast 
iron  in  the  form  of  an  arch  and  had  a  span  of  100  feet  6  inches. 
Through  some  error  in  the  plans  it  cracked  soon  after  it  was  erected, 
but  this  corrected  the  error  and  it  is  still  used  and  considered  safe. 

Philadelphia  in  1787  wanted  a  bridge  over  the  Schuylkill  but 
there  could  be  no  pier  in  the  river  on  account  of  the  great  masses  of 
ice  which  had  carried  away  such  structures  on  other  occasions. 
With  characteristic  daring  Tom  Paine  agreed  to  build  an  iron  bridge 
with  an  arch  of  cast  iron  made  in  segments  and  long  enough  to  reach 
from  bank  to  bank,  236  feet.  He  went  to  England  to  superintend 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  357 

the  casting  of  the  bridge  at  the  Rotherham  works  in  Yorkshire. 
The  pieces  were  cast,  shipped  to  London,  and  set  up  for  trial,  and 
proved  entirely  satisfactory.  The  bridge  occasioned  considerable 
comment  but  at  this  juncture  the  French  Revolution  absorbed  Paine, 
heart  and  soul,  and  the  bridge  was  left  to  look  out  for  itself  and 
sold  by  the  makers.  However,  the  Schuylkill  was  spanned  at  Chest- 
nut street  by  a  cast  iron  bridge,  erected  in  1863.  It  had  two  spans 
of  1 80  feet  each,  and  was  the  largest  cast  iron  bridge  in  America,  but 
has  since  been  replaced  by  a  cantilever. 

The  suspension  bridge  appeared  in  China,  like  so  many  other 
things,  at  a  very  early  date,  but  the  suspension  bridge  with  its  road- 
way attached  to  the  cables  and  not  lying  directly  upon  the  cables  is 
an  American  institution,  and  the  first  one  having  such  a  construction 
was  erected  by  Jacob  Finlay  in  1801  over  Jacob's  creek  at  Greens- 
burg,  Pennsylvania.  Finlay  employed  as  cables  two  chains  passing 
over  towers  70  feet  apart,  and  hung  the  roadway,  I2J^  feet  wide,  to 
these  chains. 

The  first  wire  suspension  cable  is  believed  to  be  that  of  White 
and  Hazard,  who  in  1816  constructed  a  footbridge  across  the  Schuyl- 
kill river  above  Philadelphia.  Until  this  time  chains  had  been  used 
as  cables  in  all  suspension  bridges,  but  they  employed  cables  made 
of  six  wires,  each  wire  y%  inch  in  diameter.  The  bridge  had  a  span 
of  408  feet  and  cost  only  $125.  A  toll  of  one  cent  per  passage  was 
charged  and  only  eight  people  were  allowed  upon  the  bridge  at  one 
time.  The  progress  of  67  years  is  well  shown  by  comparing  the 
first  wire  cable  bridge  with  the  greatest. 

The  Brooklyn  bridge  has  the  longest  span  of  any  suspension 
bridge  in  the  world,  its  central  span  being  1595.5  feet  wide  and  135 
feet  above  the  water.  The  work  was  begun  January  2,  1870,  and 
the  bridge  opened  to  the  public  May  23,  1883.  The  bridge  with  its 
approach  is  6537  feet  long,  or  more  than  ij  miles.  It  was  planned 


358  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM." 

and  begun  by  John  A.  Roebling,  but  in  the  early  part  of  the  work 
an  accident  resulted  in  injuries  to  his  foot,  lockjaw  (tetanus)  set  in, 
and  he  died.  His  son,  Washington  A.  Roebling,  took  up  the  work 
and  carried  it  to  its  completion. 

The  roadway  of  this  bridge  is  supported  by  four  great  cables 
each  15^  inches  in  diameter.  Each  cable  is  composed  of  nineteen 
strands  and  each  strand  is  made  of  278  steel  wires  of  No.  7  gauge,  so 
that  each  cable  contains  5296  wires  galvanized  and  oil  coated,  closely 
bound  together.  The  wire  in  each  skein  is  continuous  and  passes 
from  one  anchorage  across  the  river  to  the  other  139  times,  at  each 
turn  passing  through  an  eyepiece.  Each  turn  is  of  exactly  the  same 
length  so  as  to  give  the  same  tension,  and  it  was  found  that  if  some 
wires  were  "  regulated"  (adjusted)  at  sunset  and  others  at  noon  it 
made  a  difference  of  two  feet  or  more  between  the  wires  at  the  mid- 
dle of  the  span,  so  the  regulating  was  done  between  daylight  and 
sunlight  to  avoid  the  sun's  influence,  and  forty  wires  a  day,  laid  and 
regulated,  was  a  good  average.  After  the  nineteen  skeins  were  laid 
and  regulated  they  were  gathered  together,  the  odd  skein  in  the  mid- 
dle, the  other  forming  two  circles  about  it  and  the  whole  firmly 
bound  with  wire  closely  wound  spirally  the  whole  length  of  the  cable. 

The  ends  of  the  cable  are  fastened  to  anchorages  930  feet  inland 
from  the  bottorr  of  each  tower.  Each  anchorage  is  90  feet  deep, 
119  feet  by  132  feet  at  the  base,  made  of  solid  masonry  and  weighs 
120,000,000  pounds.  The  anchor  plates  are  of  cast  iron  16.5  feet 
wide,  17.5  feet  long,  and  2.5  feet  thick,  connecting  with  the  cables 
by  gigantic  chains  of  18  links  abreast,  each  link  12  feet  5  inches 
long,  extending  in  a  curve  upward  toward  the  tower.  For  the  an- 
chor to  be  pulled  out  the  entire  mass  of  masonry  would  have  to  be 
overturned  and  the  bridge  would  give  way  long  before  sufficient 
power  could  be  brought  to  bear  to  do  this. 

The  cables  pass  from  the  anchorage  over  the  tops  of  two  granite 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  359 

towers  278  feet  high,  one  on  either  shore.  The  foundations  of  the 
New  York  tower  go  down  78  feet  and  rest  on  solid  rock.  Near  the 
top  of  each  tower  is  an  immense  cast  iron  plate  covering  nearly  the 
whole  area.  On  this  plate  are  a  number  of  rollers  bearing  the  sad- 
dles over  which  the  cables  run.  Such  an  arrangement  allows  a  free 
movement  of  the  saddle  caused  by  the  expansion  and  contraction  of 
the  cable  due  to  the  changes  in  temperature.  The  original  cost  of 
the  bridge  was  about  $15,000,000  and  the  receipts  from  it  for  the  year 
ending  1893,  $1,590,140.03.  The  total  cost  of  the  Brooklyn  bridge 
up  to  December  2 1,  1897,  was  about  $21,000,000.  The  bridge  of 
Hazard  and  White  was  the  humble  progenitor  of  the  bridge  over 
which  pass,  every  day,  more  people  than  lived  in  any  city  on  the  con- 
tinent at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  plans  for 
another  suspension  bridge  between  Manhattan  and  Brooklyn  over 
the  East  river  have  been  approved  by  the  War  Department.  This 
bridge  is  estimated  to  cost  $15,833,000. 

There  are  other  famous  suspension  bridges.  One  built  by  Tel- 
ford  across  the  straits  of  Menai  and  connecting  the  mainland  of 
Wales  with  the  island  of  Anglesea,  was  at  its  completion,  1826,  con- 
sidered one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world.  The  span  was  579  feet, 
the  greatest  length  ever  attained  up  to  that  time.  The  roadway  was 
supported  100  feet  above  high  water  by  four  chains  made  of  massive 
links  of  wrought  iron  7  feet  in  length,  passing  from  towers  194  feet 
high,  the  chains  having  their  ends  firmly  anchored  in  solid  masses  of 
masonry  back  of  the  towers. 

The  gorge  at  Niagara,  one  of  the  greatest  challenges  Nature 
ever  offered  to  the  bridge  builder,  has  been  the  scene  of  the  romance 
of  bridge  building  in  which  Homan  Walsh,  a  boy  expert  as  a  kite 
flyer,  played  no  small  part.  When  the  first  bridge  across  the  gorge 
was  projected,  how  to  get  the  first  wire  across  was  something  of  a 
problem.  The  boy  and  his  kite  were  enlisted,  and  he  entered  enthu- 


360          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

siastically  into  the  scheme.  As  the  wind  blew  from  the  Canadian 
side  he  crossed  over  there  in  midwinter  and  soon  had  his  kite  high 
in  the  air  on  the  American  side,  but,  contrary  to  his  expectations, 
the  wind  did  not  die  down  toward  evening,  but  increased  in  velocity, 
and  so  for  hours  the  boy  moved  about  in  the  cold,  clinging  coura- 
geously to  his  kite  string.  Signal  fires  were  lighted  on  both  sides  and 
about  midnight  the  wind  began  to  slacken,  the  kite  to  settle,  and  in 
an  hour  or  so  the  sound  of  cheers  told  him  that  his  kite  was  found, 
but  so  much  string  had  been  let  out  that  the  floating  ice  in  the  river 
caught  and  broke  it.  The  drifting  ice  closed  the  ferry  and  kept  him 
a  prisoner  for  eight  days,  but  on  arriving  on  the  American  side  he 
found  his  kite  in  good  condition  and  made  another  attempt,  which 
was  successful.  The  slender  kite  string  served  to  draw  across  a 
cord,  and  this  in  turn  a  stronger  until  one  was  obtained  strong 
enough  to  carry  across  the  gorge  the  first  wire  cable  and  the  work  of 
construction  was  begun.  A  basket  was  hung  to  the  cable  and  served 
to  support  the  workmen  and  also  for  passenger  traffic.  Passengers 
were  ferried  over  in  it  at  $i  a  passage,  the  receipts  some  days  amount- 
ing to  $125. 

A  suspension  bridge  for  railroad  service  was  soon  decided  upon 
and  John  A.  Roebling  selected  as  the  engineer.  Iron  was  so  ex- 
pensive that  the  cables  only  were  of  that  material,  the  towers  even 
being  built  of  wood,  for  it  would  have  cost  a  small  fortune  to  have 
transported  iron  to  Niagara,  which  was  then  ''away  out  West." 
This  double  decked  structure  was  completed  in  1855  but  in  1880  all 
the  woodwork  of  the  bridge  was  removed  and  replaced  by  steel  with- 
out interrupting  the  traffic  or  meeting  with  a  serious  accident. 

The  demands  of  travel  having  outgrown  the  capacities  of  the 
bridge  it  was  in  1896  replaced  by  a  steel  arch  of  550  feet  span,  com- 
pleted August  27,  1897,  the  work  having  been  carried  on  without  in- 
terrupting traffic,  and  it  stands  to-day  the  longest  steel  arch  in  the 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING. 


361 


world.  The  transformations  which  this  one  bridge  has  undergone 
form  a  series  of  most  interesting  and  wonderful  exhibitions  of 
mechanical  skill  and  daring.  The  Niagara  river  has  been  and  is 
spanned  by  other  bridges,  but  none  have  had  such  interesting  ex- 
periences as  this.  March  8,  1899,  the  body  of  Roman  Walsh  was 
brought  to  Niagara  for  burial,  and  the  train  that  carried  it  passed 
over  the  steel  arch  built  on  the  site  where  half  a  century  before  his 
kite  string  had  formed  an  international  bridge  between  the  United 
States  and  Canada. 


THE  NIAGARA  STEEL  ARCH. 

The  perfection  of  the  suspension  bridge  is  largely  due  to  John  A. 
Roebling,  who  remedied  its  lack  of  rigidity  and  the  swaying 
produced  by  wind  by  introducing  a  system  of  stays  and  stiffening 
trusses.  He  built  the  first  suspension  bridge  across  Niagara  in  the 
face  of  almost  unanimous  predictions  of  failure  by  British  engineers, 
for  all  the  suspension  bridges  erected  in  Great  Britain  had  up  to  that 
time  been  deficient  in  rigidity.  One  or  more  of  them  had  been 
blown  down,  and  Stephenson's  tubular  girder  was  most  popular 
there  for  long  spans. 

The  girder  type  of  bridge  is  the  strongest  form  for  long  spans  yet 
devised.  The  simplest  illustration  of  this  type  is  a  tree  trunk  lying 


362  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

across  a  water  course.  The  principle  has  been  elaborated  in  bridge 
building  and  architecture  until  the  tree  trunk  has  been  changed  into 
large  beams  (chords)  connected  by  braces  and  tension  rods  forming  a 
truss  that  may  look  almost  like  lattice  work.  The  ends  of  the  girder 
rest  upon  foundations  at  the  river  bank  prepared  for  it.  In  common 
practice  these  are  called  "  abutments  "  as  distinguished  from  de- 
tached portions  of  masonry  erected  between  the  abutments  called 
"  piers."  Suppose  a  space  of  a  few  feet  to  be  bridged  and  a  plank  12 
inches  wide  and  three  inches  thick  thrown  across  it.  If  the  plank  were 
not  strong  enough  and  another  placed  beside  it,  the  two,  if  the 
weight  were  equally  distributed,  would  bear  twice  the  load  of  the 
first.  If  one  plank  be  placed  on  top  of  the  other  and  the  two  spiked 
firmly  together  they  will  bear  not  twice  but  four  times  the  original 
load.  If  the  under  plank  be  set  up  on  edge  and  the  upper  plank 
spiked  to  it  making  a  letter  "T,"  it  will  support  seven  times  the 
original  load.  If  the  planks  be  sawed  in  two,  giving  four  boards  1.5 
inches  thick  and  a  foot  wide,  and  these  be  nailed  together  in  the  form 
of  a  long  box  it  will  support  nineteen  times  the  original  load. 
Robert  Stephenson,  so  prominently  identified  with  the  early  his- 
tory of  the  locomotive,  applied  this  principle  to  bridge  building. 

The  Tubular  Bridge.  A  suspension  bridge  at  Conway  failed  and 
Stephenson  applied  to  Parliament  in  1846  for  permission  to  build  a 
bridge  of  a  new  design  of  which  he  was  the  inventor.  The  permis- 
sion was  secured  and  in  1847  the  Conway  Tube  bridge  was  begun. 
It  was  made  of  boiler  iron  plates  four  to  eight  feet  long,  about  two 
feet  wide,  and  five  eighths  inch  thick,  put  together  and  riveted  by  hand, 
forming  a  tube  412  feet  long,  14  feet  wide,  and  25  feet  high  in  the 
middle.  It  weighed  1300  tons,  gave  satisfaction,  and  is  still  in  use. 
The  Victoria  bridge  at  Montreal  was  Stephenson's  masterpiece.  This 
is  a  quadrangular  tubular  bridge  16  feet  by  22  feet  in  cross  section  and 
I  J^  miles  long.  It  was  completed  in  1859  and  cost  about  $7,000,000. 


IRON   AND    STEEL    WORKING. 


363 


The  tubular  bridge  served   its  purpose  but  it  is  now  known  that  a 

different  arrangement  of  the  metal  will  give  greater  strength   for  the 

same   weight.      The    amount 

of  material  and  workmanship 

required     render     them      the 

most  costly  of  all  structures, 

and  both    the    Britannia    and 

the  Victoria  bridge  ruined  the 

companies  that  built  them. 

The    first  steel  bridge  in 
the  world  was  that  built  by 

Captain  James  B.  Eads  across        THE  BRITANNIA  TUBULAR  BRIDGE  ACROSS 

,,       »»•     •     «       •  <-„     T        •  THE  MENAI  STRAITS. 

the  Mississippi  at   St.  Louis. 

Although  the  inventions  of  Bessemer,  Mushet,  Kelly,  and  others  had 
made  steel  available  in  place  of  wrought  iron  since  1858,  it  was  not 
until  1874  that  the  St.  Louis  bridge  was  completed.  This  structure 
gave  birth  to  a  new  industry,  the  manufacture  of  structural  steel,  and 
the  condition  of  the  art  at  that  time  was  such  that  more  steel  was 
rejected  than  was  used.  Special  machines  were  invented  and  built  to 
test  the  materials,  and  the  accurate  knowledge  now  possessed  of  the 
physical  properties  of  steel  is  more  the  result  of  the  building  of  this 
bridge  than  of  any  other  one  structure.  Each  span  is  composed  of 
four  arches  formed  of  steel  tubes  nine  inches  in  diameter.  Each  tube 
is  straight  but  wedge-shaped  pieces  at  the  joint  give  form  to  the  arch. 
The  arches  are  held  together  as  well  as  apart  by  a  system  of  diagonal 
steel  braces  and  tension  rods.  There  are  three  spans  in  the  bridge : 
the  center  5  I  5  feet,  and  the  end  spans  497  feet  each. 

The  longest  bridge  in  the  world  was  the  lattice  girder  bridge 
built  over  the  Tay  in  Scotland.  It  was  10,396  feet  in  length,  lack- 
ing only  fifty-five  yards  of  two  miles.  It  was  completed  in  1877  at 
a  cost  of  £350, ooo,  but  went  down  the  night  of  December  28,  1879, 


364  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

carrying  with  it  a  passenger  train  and  seventy-five  passengers.  A 
board  of  inquiry  reported  that  the  failure  was  caused  by  faulty  con- 
struction and  that  there  were  no  understood  rules  or  requirements 
existing  in  Great  Britain  regarding  the  computations  of  wind  pres- 
sure, although  in  France  an  allowance  of  fifty-five  pounds  per  square 
foot,  and  in  the  United  States  fifty  pounds  per  square  foot,  was  gen- 
erally required.  It  was  replaced  in  1887  by  the  Tay  viaduct,  10,780 
feet  long,  which  holds  the  record  as  the  longest  bridge  in  the  world. 
It  is  of  the  same  type  as  the  original  but  much  stronger. 

The  cantilever  bridge  holds  the  record  for  the  greatest  distance 
spanned.  The  cantilever,  a  beam,  a  truss,  or  a  girder,  balanced  at 
some  point  near  the  middle,  is  extensively  employed  in  bridge  build- 
ing as  well  as  in  architecture  and  hoisting  machinery.  If  a  stick  be 
broken  across  the  knee  the  fibers  of  the  wood  farthest  from  the  knee 
are  put  in  tension  while  those  nearest  are  forced  together  or  put  into 
a  state  of  compression.  When  the  ends  of  girders  are  placed  on 
abutments  the  weight  puts  the  tops  of  the  girders  in  compression  and 
the  lower  parts  in  constant  tension.  Paradoxical  as  it  may  seem, 
the  strength  of  a  girder  is  just  about  doubled  by  an  arrangement  that 
turns  it  upside  down  and  cuts  it  in  two  at  the  middle,  for  the  cantilever 
is  made  by  balancing  a  girder  by  its  center  on  a  pier  instead  of  raising 
its  ends  on  the  piers,  and  puts  the  top  in  tension  and  the  bottom  in 
compression.  The  center  of  the  truss  is  made  higher  than  the  ends, 
which  to  some  extent  hang  from  the  center.  The  roadbed,  instead  of 
running  over  the  top  or  on  the  bottom  of  the  truss  as  it  does  in  the 
girder  type,  runs  right  through  the  center  of  the  cantilever. 

The  Forth  bridge,  a  cantilever  type,  has  two  spans  of  1710 
feet,  each  exceeding  in  length  by  more  than  100  feet  the  greatest 
span  of  the  largest  suspension  bridge  in  the  world.  The  Eiffel 
Tower  represents  the  greatest  height  achieved  by  man's  daring,  yet 
with  its  boasted  height  of  nearly  1000  feet  it  could  be  laid  length- 


IRON   AND    STEEL    WORKING. 


365 


THE  FORTH  BRIDGE. 


wise  on  one  of  the  spans  of  the  Forth  bridge  and  lack  700  feet  of 
reaching  from  pier  to  pier.  The  bridge  stands  on  three  piers  which 
support  the  5  3,000  tons  of  steel  of  which  it  is  built.  Each  of  the  great 
cantilevers  rises  340  feet  above  the  piers,  or  361  feet  above  water 
level.  The  base  of  the  foundation  is  91  feet  below  the  water  level, 
and  the  distance  from  the 
base  of  the  foundation  to 
the  top  of  the  cantilevers  is 
greater  than  that  of  the  high- 
est building  in  the  world. 
Wind  pressure  that  wrecked 
the  Tay  bridge  has  here  an 
allowance  of  56  pounds  per 
square  foot  made  for  it,  and  with  the  greatest  rolling  load  to  which 
the  bridge  will  ever  be  subjected  and  a  hurricane  blowing,  the  bridge 
would  be  able  to  sustain  a  load  four  times  as  great.  The  bridge  was 
opened  March  4,  1890,  and  cost  £4,000,000  or  nearly  $20,000,000. 
This  great  structure,  which  may  be  justly  considered  the  most  gigan- 
tic piece  of  mechanism  in  the  world,  stands  as  a  monument  to  its 
builders,  William  Arrol  and  Company  of  Glasgow. 

Enormous  as  are  the  cantilevers  of  the  Forth  river  bridge  it  is 
evident  that  the  system  has  not  reached  its  limit,  for  experiments 
conducted  by  the  United  States  government  determined  that  it  was 
practicable  to  reach  a  span  of  4335  feet,  or  more  than  four  fifths  of 
a  mile. 

The  Kinzua  viaduct,  on  the  Bradford  branch  of  the  New  York, 
Lake  Erie,  and  Western  railroad,  furnishes  a  sample  of  the  expense 
of  keeping  pace  with  the  demands  of  progress.  The  viaduct  is  301 
feet  above  Kinzua  creek,  has  a  length  of  2052  feet,  and  is  supported 
by  20  steel  towers  resting  on  foundations  of  masonry.  The  bridge 
cost  but  $275,000  and  was  completed  in  8^  months  from  the 


366 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


time  work  was  commenced  on  the  foundation,  all  the  steel  being  put 
in  place  between  May  5  and  August  20,  and  during  the  whole  opera- 
tion no  more  than  125  men  were  employed  at  one  time.  It  was 
built  to  sustain  the  heaviest  engines  and  cars  laden  with  the  lumber 
and  soft  coal  of  Western  Pennsylvania.  The  engines  then  in  use 
weighed  103,400  pounds,  the  boilers  carried  a  steam  pressure  of  125 
pounds  per  square  inch,  and  the  cars  had  an  average  capacity  of 
about  40,000  pounds.  After  eighteen  years  of  service  the  bridge 
was  rebuilt,  although  in  excellent  condition,  giving  place  to  a  far 
stronger  one  because  the  demands  of  traffic  had  called  into  action 
locomotives  weighing  190,000  pounds  with  boilers  carrying  a  steam 
pressure  of  200  pounds  per  square  inch  and  cars  having  a  hauling 
capacity  of  100,000  pounds.  In  other  words,  the  car  capacity  had 
increased  from  100  per  cent,  to  150  per  cent,  and  the  weight  of  the 
engine  more  than  80  per  cent. 

The  Pecos  viaduct  of  the   Southern   Pacific   railroad,  one  of  the 
highest   in  the  world,  is  2180  feet  long,  has  48  spans,  and  was  built 

by  67  men  in  87  days.  The 
rails  are  328  feet  above  the 
water  and  the  viaduct  is  the 
highest  one  on  the  North 
American  continent.  Bolivia 
has  at  Loa  a  viaduct  800  feet 
long  and  336  feet  high.  This 
is  the  highest  in  South  Amer- 
ica. At  Garabit,  France, 
there  is  one  1852  feet  long 

and  406  feet  high ;  the  high- 
THE  GARABIT  VIADUCT. 

est  in  the   world.      Germany 

has  one  of  the  highest  bridges  in  the  world.  The  Mungsted  bridge 
over  the  Wupper  river  furnishes  a  passage  for  the  Solingen-Remscheid 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  367 

railroad.  It  is  1640  feet  long  and  the  top  of  the  rails  are  354  feet 
from  the  water  underneath.  It  is  a  steel  bridge  of  the  arch  type,  the 
top  of  the  arch  rising  225  feet  above  its  base.  It  has  a  span  of  557.6 
feet,  second  only  to  that  of  Niagara. 

Another  famous  viaduct  is  that  over  the  Gokteik  gorge  in  Bur- 
mah  to  furnish  a  direct  railroad  line  from  Rangoon  to  China.  Al- 
most insurmountable  obstacles  were  connected  with  the  work,  for 
the  bridge  is  150  miles  from  any  seaport  and  everything  had  to  be 
transported  overland.  The  viaduct  is  about  2300  feet  in  length  and 
in  some  places  more  than  320  feet  high.  The  contract  was  awarded 
to  the  Pennsylvania  Steel  Company  of  Steelton,  because  time  was 
an  important  factor  and  the  Steelton  Company  would  agree  to  com- 
plete the  work  in  half  the  time  asked  by  their  closest  competitor. 
When  the  difficulties  surrounding  the  work  are  taken  into  considera- 
tion it  may  be  considered  as  one  of  the  great  feats  of  modern  en- 
gineering. 

A  Bridge  for  the  Soudan.  Late  in  1898  the  British  government 
decided  to  build,  for  the  benefit  of  Kitchener's  expedition  in  the 
Soudan,  a  bridge  across  the  Atbara  river,  a  large  tributary  of  the 
Nile.  The  designs  were  drawn  in  London  and  submifted  to  Ameri- 
can and  British  bidders,  but  when  reviewed  by  the  engineers  on  the 
spot  the  plans  were  shown  to  be  impracticable  and  telegrams  were 
sent  the  bidders  asking  how  quickly  they  could  make  delivery  of  a 
bridge  according  to  new  specifications.  Owing  to  labor  troubles,  the 
British  firms  could  not  guarantee  delivery  under  six  months  and  the 
contract  went  to  an  American  firm  that  agreed  to  put  the  bridge  on 
board  the  vessel  in  New  York  harbor  in  six  weeks.  The  contract 
was  signed  January  30,  1900,  and  in  thirty-seven  days  the  complete 
bridge  was  turned  out,  five  days  ahead  of  contract  time.  The  follow- 
ing is  an  extract  from  General  Kitchener's  speech  at  the  ceremony  of 
opening  the  -bridge  :  — 


3^8          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

"  In  November  and  December  every  effort  was  made  to  place  the 
order  for  the  superstructure  in  England,  but  it  was  found  impossible 
for  British  firms  to  supply  so  big  an  undertaking  in  the  time  allowed. 
This  matter  is  one  of  considerable  regret  to  me  personally.  I  think 
it  demonstrates  that  the  relations  between  labor  and  capital  in  our 
country  are  not  such  as  to  give  sufficient  confidence  to  capitalists  to 
induce  them  to  run  the  risk  of  establishing  great  up-to-date  work- 
shops with  the  plant  necessary  to  enable  Great  Britain  to  maintain 
her  proud  position  as  the  first  constructing  nation  in  the  world. 
Well,  gentlemen,  where  Englishmen  have  failed  I  am  delighted  to 
find  our  cousins  across  the  Atlantic  have  stepped  in.  The  opening 
of  this  bridge  to-day  is  due  to  their  energy  and  ability  and  the  power 
they  possess  in  so  marked  a  degree  of  turning  out  works  of  this  mag- 
nitude in  less  time  than  can  be  done  by  anyone  else.  I  congratulate 
the  American  foremen  and  workmen  on  the  excellent  success  which 
has  crowned  their  efforts  in  the  erection  of  this  bridge  in  the  heart  of 
Africa,  far  from  their  homes,  during  the  hottest  months  of  the  year, 
and  depending  solely  upon  the  labor  of  men  speaking  a  foreign 
tongue.  They  have  shown  by  their  work  the  real  grit  they  are 
made  of." 

The  New  Bridge  at  Quebec.  Quebec  is  to  have  a  bridge  of  the 
cantilever  type  crossing  the  St.  Lawrence  river.  It  will  have  a  cen- 
tral span  of  1800  feet,  which  when  completed  will  be  the  widest  span 
in  the  world,  exceeding  that  of  the  Forth  bridge  by  about  100  feet 
and  of  the  Brooklyn  bridge  by  about  200  feet.  The  contract  for  the 
bridge  has  been  let  to  the  Phoenix  Iron  and  Steel  Company  of  Phce- 
nixville,  Pennsylvania,  and  the  structure  is  to  cost  $4,500,000. 

Bridge  building  has  been  reduced  almost  to  an  exact  science, 
the  last  decade  having  seen  great  gains  in  this  direction.  The 
greatest  disasters,  those  of  the  Tay  bridge  and  at  Ashtabula,  have 
been  shown  by  investigating  committees  to  be  due  to  faulty  con- 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  369 

struction  that  to-day  would  be  recognized  and  at  once  corrected,  and 
bridges  are  now  planned  to  carry  from  four  to  ten  times  the  load 
likely  to  be  required  of  them. 

A  steel  bridge  made  of  good  material,  with  the  demands  upon  it 
within  a  reasonable  margin  of  safety,  will  last  for  centuries  if  the 
steel  is  protected  by  coats  of  paint  from  corrosion.  The  popular  be- 
lief that  a  crystallization  insidiously  saps  the  strength  of  steel  has  no 
foundation  in  fact,  and  is  a  fiction  pure  and  simple.  Steel  protected 
from  corrosion  can  lose  its  life  only  by  being  strained  beyond  its 
elastic  limit,  and  if  the  bridge  is  designed  so  that  none  of  the  parts 
are  strained  beyond  this  limit  such  a  bridge  will  outlast  most  nations. 

Some  of  the  Longest  Bridges  in  the  World.  The  following  is 
a  list,  although  incomplete,  of  some  of  the  longest  bridges  in  the  world. 
In  general  the  lengths  given  include  the  approaches  as  well  as  the  main 
spans. 

New  Tay  Viaduct,  Scotland 10780  feet 

Ohio  River  Bridge,  Cairo,  Illinois 10560  " 

Forth  Bridge,  Scotland 8295  ' ' 

Missouri  River  Bridge,  Kansas  City,  Mo 7633  " 

Hudson  River  Bridge,  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y 6770  " 

Victoria  Bridge,  Montreal,  Canada 6520  " 

New  Susquehanna  Bridge,  Havre  de  Grace,  Md 6315  " 

East  River  Bridge,  Brooklyn 5989  ' ' 

Cincinnati  and  Newport  Bridge,  Ohio  River 5925  ' ' 

Wooden  Bridge  at  Columbia,  Pa 53^6  " 

Cincinnati  and  Covington  Bridge 53^o  ' ' 

Rapperswyl  Bridge  at  Lake  Zurich 5333  ' ' 

Ohio  River  Bridge,  Louisville,  Ky 5280  • ' 

Volga  Bridge,  over  the  Sysrau,  Russia 4947  " 

Moerdyck  Bridge,  in  Holland 4927  " 

Dneiper  Bridge,  Jekaterinoslaw,  Russia 4213  " 

Kiew  Bridge,  over  the  Dneiper 3607  ' ' 

Barrage  Bridge,  Delta  of  the  Nile 3353  " 

Kronprinz  Rudolph  Bridge,  Vienna » 3266  " 

Dneiper  Bridge,  near  Krementchoug,  Russia 325°  " 

Bommel  Bridge,  over  the  Meuse,  Holland 3060  " 


370 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


SKY  SCRAPERS. 

The  closing  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  witnessed  a  start- 
ling revolution  in  architecture.      Fifteen  years  ago  the  modern  steel 

skeleton  building  existed  only  in 
the  constructive  imagination  of 
the  most  progressive  architect. 
Ten  years  ago  it  was  just  coming 
into  use.  To-day  it  is  so  common 
as  to  attract  no  attention. 

Tall  -buildings  are  almost  as 
old  as  architecture  itself,  but 
the  tall  building  that  can  be  put 
to  practical  use  is  a  modern  in- 
vention. The  base  of  the  great 
pyramid  covers  more  than  13 
acres  of  ground  and  its  height 
reaches  45  I  feet.  Ancient  Rome 
had  tenement  buildings  12  stories 
high  at  the  street  front,  15  or 
more  at  the  rear,  and  these  be- 
came so  dangerous  that  Augus- 
tus limited  their  height  bylaw  to 
60  feet  on  the  street  front.  The 
ruins  of  Pompeii  show  that  the 
height  of  some  upper  stones  was 
about  4  feet,  3  inches.  Picture 
the  result  of  overcrowding  in  such 
rooms  in  an  age  that  knew  noth- 
ing of  sanitary  engineering!  Nero's  fire  effectually  wiped  out  the 
most  wretched  of  these  buildings  and  he  remodeled  the  plan  of  the 
city,  made  wide  streets  in  place  of  narrow  alleys,  and  issued  an  edict 


THE  PARK  Row  BUILDING. 


HIGH  BUILDING,  STEEL  SKELETON  IN  PROCESS  OF  CONSTRUCTION, 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  3/1 

that  no  house  should  be  more  than  twice  as  high  as  the  width  of  the 
street  on  which  it  stood. 

St.  Peter's  at  Rome  is  a  monument  not  only  to  the  Apostle  but 
to  the  architectural  skill  and  daring  of  thirteen  centuries.  It  is  so 
enormous  that  figures  fail  to  convey  any  adequate  idea  of  its  true 
size.  The  distance  from  the  doors  to  the  apse  is  a  little  more  than 
y&  mile.  It  is  ^  mile  from  the  pavement  to  the  lantern  in  the 
cupola,  and  the  top  of  the  cross  is  476  feet  above  the  pavement. 
Eighty  thousand  people  can  be  seated  within  this  vast  cathedral, 
where  50,000  seem  but  a  slim  attendance.  On  the  square,  ellipse, 
and  steps  in  front  of  the  cathedral  an  army  of  200,000  men  could  be 
drawn  up  in  military  order.  Those  employed  in  its  decoration  or 
construction  comprise  some  of  the  greatest  names  in  painting,  sculp- 
ture, or  architecture,  and  they  have  produced  the  most  magnificent 
church  building  in  the  world. 

The  highest  building  in  the  world  composed  of  masonry  is  the 
Washington  monument,  a  plain  shaft  500  feet  high,  55  feet  square  at 
the  base,  30  feet  square  at  the  top,  surmounted  by  a  pyramidion  55 
feet  high,  giving  a  total  height  to  the  monument  of  555  feet  from  the 
ground.  But  its  walls  are  so  immense  and  cumbersome  that  they 
would  never  do  in  a  building  intended  for  practical  purposes.  Such 
buildings  are  monuments  upon  which  the  world's  great  architects  and 
sculptors  have  written  the  records  of  their  achievements,  but  this 
utilitarian  age  has  little  use  for  monuments  in  business  and  the  mod- 
ern steel  sky  scraper  that  has  risen  in  response  to  the  demand  for  a 
more  concentrated  office  life  is  quite  a  different  structure. 

The  tendency  of  mankind  seems  to  be  to  gather  within  as  small 
working  limits  as  possible.  Even  in  the  walled  cities  of  the  Middle 
Ages  space  became  so  valuable  that  nearly  all  the  houses  were  built 
to  the  extreme  height  allowed  by  law,  or  until  limited  by  the 
strength  of  the  materials  then  employed.  Our  complex  civilization 


372  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

offers  no  exception  to  this  tendency,  in  spite  of  all  the  arguments  and 
dangers  attendant  upon  the  concentration  of  a  population.  The  con- 
ditions exist  and  must  be  met. 

The  Reason  for  High  Buildings.  Time  was  when  nearly  all 
business  was  transacted  in  scattered  offices  located  in  widely 
separated  stores,  factories,  or  warehouses.  The  stores,  factories, 
and  warehouses  have  grown  larger,  offices  have  been  divorced  from 
them  and  grouped  together  in  enormous  buildings  erected  for  that 
especial  purpose  within  large  cities.  The  office  is  located  where  it 
can  be  in  closest  touch  with  the  greatest  number  of  prospective 
buyers.  The  factory  or  warehouse  is  located  where  the  shipping 
facilities  are  best  and  the  running  expenses  lightest.  It  is  usually 
many  miles  from  the  office,  often  in  another  state  or  province,  not 
unfrequently  in  another  country.  By  grouping  the  offices  of 
numerous  different  enterprises  within  a  large  city,  time  is  saved, 
business  can  be  transacted  much  more  satisfactorily,  working  hours 
shortened,  opportunity  given  for  leisure  and  self  improvement,  vaca- 
tions made  possible, —  all  to  the  benefit  of  the  office  using  part  of 
our  population.  The  business  man  at  his  desk  in  Ottawa  can,  with- 
out leaving  his  office  chair,  talk  with  a  customer  in  Washington. 
The  man  in  New  York  can  communicate  with  London  in  the  morn- 
ing and  get  a  reply  before  going  to  luncheon. 

Better  service  can  be  given  and  the  sanitary  conditions  made 
better  at  less  cost  in  a  large  building  because  of  using  larger,  hence 
more  economical  power,  heating,  lighting,  and  ventilating  plants 
than  can  be  profitably  maintained  in  smaller  buildings. 

One  argument  much  used  against  tall  buildings  containing 
enough  population  to  make  an  average  sized  country  town  is  that 
they  cause  a  great  congestion  in  street  traffic.  Suppose  two  ar- 
rangements of  offices,  one  in  which  500  offices  are  contained  in  five 
buildings,  the  other  having  them  all  in  one  building.  The  represen- 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  373 

tatives  of  these  offices  all  doing  more  or  less  business  with  each  other 
must  meet,  and  to  get  from  office  to  office,  use  the  street  to  get 
from  building  to  building.  In  the  modern  arrangement  the  repre- 
sentatives of  one  office  need  not  leave  the  building  to  visit  every  one 
of  the  other  499  offices.  Inasmuch  as  the  representatives  of  various 
allied  industries  tend  to  group  themselves  together  in  one  building 
or  district,  this  is  not  a  theoretical  but  a  practical  proposition,  and  it 
needs  no  argument  to  prove  that  the  big  office  building  tends  to  re- 
lieve rather  than  increase  street  congestion.  The  concentration  of 
office  population  shortens  the  distance  from  office  to  home  and  there- 
fore shortens  the  average  haul  per  passenger  on  street  railway  lines. 
If  this  population  were  scattered  over  a  large  area,  as  in  the  old 
style  of  office  buildings,  much  valuable  time  would  be  lost  in  this 
daily  trip.  The  tall  office  building  also  increases  the  profit  in  operat- 
ing street  railways,  because,  while  they  serve  the  same  number  of 
people,  less  power  is  required  on  account  of  the  less  average  distance 
traveled  by  each  person. 

Enormous  Prices  for  Land.  In  the  business  and  office  districts 
of  our  large  cities  ground  is  so  valuable  that,  to  get  a  fair  income  on 
the  investment,  every  inch  of  renting  space  possible  must  be  utilized. 
The  boundaries  of  the  building  lot  being  fixed,  the  only  way  to  in- 
crease the  renting  space  is  to  make  the  building  taller.  The  ground 
on  which  the  Manhattan  Life  Building  in  New  York  stands  was  pur- 
chased for  $157.02  per  square  foot;  and  that  under  the  American 
Surety  Building  cost  from  $176  to  $282  per  square  foot.  Every  inch 
of  land  between  King  William's  statue  and  Trinity  square  in  London 
cost  over  $150  per  inch,  or  at  the  rate  of  $950,000,000  per  acre. 
Small  wonder  that  the  "skyscraper"  shot  up  as  soon  as  the  in- 
ventors had  made  steel  strong  enough  to  hold  the  structure  together 
and  cheap  enough  to  render  its  purchase  possible.  In  the  year  1880, 
land  in  Cannon  street,  London,  sold  for  $30  a  square  foot,  but  in 


374  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

i£86  the  same  land  could  not  be  bought  for  $75  a  square  foot.  The 
rental  of  the  corporation  property  in  Liverpool  in  1672  was  only 
$62,  while  to-day  it  furnishes  a  revenue  of  $62,500,000.  In  the 
same  city  land  was  recently  purchased  at  #1130  per  square  yard  for 
an  addition  to  the  Stock  Exchange.  Such  enormous  land  values 
rendered  obsolete  the  building  of  four  or  five  stories.  They  stimu- 
lated the  inventive  faculty  of  the  best  engineers  to  devise  a  plan  that 
would  give,  in  proportion  to  the  ground  area,  the  greatest  floor  space 
consistent  with  the  requirements  of  strength,  ventilation,  lighting, 
heating,  and  protection  from  fire.  Nothing  less  could  enable  such 
an  investment  to  pay  a  dividend. 

Overcoming  Difficulties.  But  many  substantial,  practical  dif- 
ficulties interposed  themselves  between  the  desirability  and  the 
feasibility  of  tall  buildings.  Tenants  do  not  like  to  climb  long  flights 
of  stairs.  Their  reluctance  to  do  this  called  out  that  high  speed 
vertical  railroad,  the  passenger  elevator.  This  was  not  the  only  dif- 
ficulty to  be  overcome,  for  if  a  building  were  made  higher  its  walls 
must  be  made  thicker  and  stronger,  to  carry  the  added  weight.  Soft 
brick  will  crush  under  a  pressure  of  about  300  pounds  per  square 
inch;  ordinary  brick  under  a  pressure  of  2500  pounds;  the  best 
pressed  brick,  7000  pounds;  and  granite,  20,000  pounds.  The 
builder  has  also  to  reckon  with  the  disintegrating  effects  of  frost, 
heat,  and  moisture,  and  it  is  not  safe  to  subject  such  materials  in  a 
building  to  more  than  one  tenth  the  strain  they  will  resist  in  a  test- 
ing machine.  The  resisting  power  of  the  material  practically  limited 
the  high  building  to  six,  eight,  or  ten  stories,  for  the  lower  walls 
must  be  thick,  almost  solid,  occupying  much  valuable  renting  space, 
rendering  large  windows  impossible  and  consuming  enormous  quanti- 
ties of  building  material.  For  a  time  it  seemed  as  though  a  city  had 
reached  the  limit  of  its  growth  in  thickness  and  must  expand  in  its 
other  dimensions,  length  and  breadth.  Masonry  gave  splendid  op- 


IRON    AND    STEEL    WORKING.  375 

portunity  to  make  beautiful  buildings,  but  architectural  beauty  is 
rather  a  secondary  object  with  the  building  speculator,  when  the 
purchase  price  of  his  land  would  cover  every  square  foot  of  it  with 
gold  coin.  He  wants  to  make  his  building  beautiful  enough  to  at- 
tract tenants,  but  his  artistic  aspirations  are  not  wont  to  soar  beyond 
the  point  where  the  beauty  of  his  structure  will  not  add  to  the 
revenue  received  from  it. 

Throughout  all  the  history  of  invention  it  is  noticeable  that  great 
improvements  come  only  in  response  to  urgent  need.  The  steel 
skeleton  method  of  building  , solved  the  building  problem,  and  the 
improvements  which  greatly  reduced  the  cost  of  steel  made  this 
method  practicable.  As  an  example  of  the  rapidity  of  this  reduction 
in  price,  steel  beams  delivered  in  Chicago  in  1892  cost  $64  per  ton; 
in  1894  the  price  under  the  same  conditions  was  $30  per  ton.  Steel 
furnished  a  building  material  which  was  both  cheap  and  efficient  and 
by  the  use  of  which  many  of  the  old  difficulties  could  be  overcome. 

Previous  to  1885  cast  iron  had  been  used  to  a  limited  extent  in 
building,  but  it  is  at  best  a  very  unsatisfactory  material  except  for 
pedestal  blocks  and  work  of  that  class.  Steel,  costing  only  a  trifle 
more,  will  give  the  same  strength  with  a  much  less  weight  and  much 
greater  security,  for  it  is  not  so  liable  to  flaws  and  defects  as  cast 
iron. 

Wrought  iron  was  used  in  some  of  the  early  skeleton  frames,  but 
its  inferiority  in  strength,  weight,  and  stiffness  to  steel,  and  the 
cheapening  of  steel,  soon  drove  it  out  of  use.  The  first  American 
building  in  which  steel  beams  were  exclusively  used  was  the  Science 
Hall  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin.  In  1888  the  first  steel  lintels 
in  a  high  building  were  used  in  the  Tacoma  Building  in  Chicago.  In 
the  same  city  in  1889  steel  columns  were  first  used  in  the  erection  of 
the  Rand-McNally  Building.  Metal  skeletons  had  not  yet  been  en- 
tirely depended  upon  and  were  largely  experimental.  But  the  result 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

of  the  experiments  were  so  satisfactory  that  in  1890  architecture  un- 
derwent a  revolution  and  we  can  justly  say  that  from  that  year  dates 
the  era  of  steel  buildings. 

In  a  steel  skeleton  building  «  the  old  order  changes,  yielding 
place  to  new,"  for  instead  of  the  walls  supporting  the  framework  of 
the  building  the  framework  supports  the  walls,  and  the  latter  need 
be  no  thicker  than  are  necessary  for  protection  and  fireproofing.  The 
walls  of  each  story  are  supported  not  by  the  walls  underneath  but  by 
huge  steel  beams  which  are  a  part  of  the  skeleton.  The  walls  are 
connected  not  at  the  bottom  but  at  any  point  where  it  is  most  con- 
venient and  construction  may  begin  simultaneously  at  three  or  four 
different  levels.  Wall  building  in  mid-air  has  an  uncanny  appearance 
to  the  uninitiated. 

St.  Peter's  required  1300  years  for  its  completion,  dating  from 
its  first  basilica,  but  our  modern  sky  scrapers  are  often  projected, 
begun,  and  completed  in  a  single  year.  In  the  sky  scraper  the  base- 
ment, cellar,  or  sub-cellar  usually  contains  the  machinery  necessary  for 
the  running  of  the  building;  the  ground  floor  is  occupied  by  stores 
or  large  banking  establishments,  the  second  story  by  large  offices, 
those  from  the  third  story  upward  are  made  nearly  alike,  form  the 
main  bulk  of  the  building,  and  are  the  smallest  offices,  which  deter- 
mine the  "  unit"  of  construction.  Above  all  comes  the  attic,  an  im- 
portant part,  for  it  contains  many  things  essential  to  the  welfare  of 
the  house. 

Calculating  for  a  "  Sky  Scraper."  The  unit,  usually  deter- 
mined by  the  size  of  one  or  the  combined  size  of  two  or  three 
small  offices,  decides  the  floor  plans,  and  in  planning  the  building 
two  points  must  be  ever  kept  in  mind;  first,  strength;  second,  util- 
ity. Columns  necessary  to  the  stability  of  the  building  are  so  dis- 
posed that  they  will  coincide  with  the  walls  and  partitions  as  far  as 
possible,  although  in  very  large  rooms  their  exposure  cannot  be 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  377 

avoided  without  jeopardizing  the  strength  of  the  building,  which  must 
be  maintained  at  all  times.  The  architect  plans  the  building  from 
below  upward,  and  then  beginning  at  the  top  works  down  to  verify 
his  figures  and  calculate  the  exact  weight  of  the  building,  or  "dead 
weight,"  which  includes  the  steel  work,  the  wall,  partitions,  floors, 
woodwork,  plumbing,  machinery,  and  every  permanent  fixture  in  the 
building.  Each  floor  is  calculated  separately  for  no  two  floors  ex- 
actly agree.  To  the  total  dead  weight  a  liberal  amount  is  added  as 
a  factor  of  safety.  The  "live  weight,"  also  added  to  the  dead 
weight,  covers  all  movable  articles,  as  furniture,  books,  safe,  stock, 
apparatus,  used  by  the  occupants  of  the  building  and  the  weight  of  . 
the  occupants  themselves.  The  building  laws  of  New  York  city  fix 
this  at  IOO  pounds  per  square  foot  of  floor  space.  This  is  far  above 
any  live  weight  actually  attained  in  practice,  the  heaviest  loads  in  ' 
Boston  showing  only  40.2  pounds  per  square  foot,  while  the  average 
was  slightly  over  33  pounds. 

The  site  of  the  proposed  building  is  next  examined,  deep  holes 
bored  if  necessary  to  determine  the  material  underlying.  Bed  rock 
is  the  most  satisfactory  base,  but  it  sometimes  lies  so  deep  that  it  is 
not  practicable  to  go  down  to  it.  Sand  and  gravel  properly  treated 
make  an  excellent  base  and  are  often  built  upon.  Many  Chicago 
buildings  rest  upon  hard  clay.  The  character  of  the  ground  being 
determined,  the  foundation  is  planned  to  suit  the  existing  conditions. 

The  problem  of  the  foundation  being  out  of  the  way,  attention  is 
turned  to  plans  for  heating,  lighting,  power,  plumbing,  ventilation, 
and,  last  but  not  least,  the  decoration  of  the  building  in  such  a  man- 
neras  not  to  conflict  with  its  utility,  and  all  these  details  are  worked 
out  before  a  single  spadeful  of  earth  is  turned.  The  work  of  the 
architect  being  finished  that  of  the  engineer  begins. 

Foundations.  In  a  large  city  "excavation"  means  more  than 
merely  making  a  hole  in  the  ground,  for  the  buildings  erected  in 


3/8          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

years  past  are  light  when  measured  by  modern  standards,  so  their 
foundations  have  been  "floated"  and  rest  on  more  or  less  soft  earth 
at  the  depth  of  only  a  few  feet  below  the  surface.  When  excavations 
for  the  foundations  of  a  sky  scraper  are  made  next  one  of  these  old 
buildings,  the  earth  swells  out  or  "flows  "  at  the  side  and  unless  pre- 
vented the  old  foundation  shifts  and  the  building  topples  over. 

The  pneumatic  caisson  is  one  of  the  most  satisfactory  methods 
of  overcoming  this  difficulty.  The  caisson  is  a  huge  steel  tank 
turned  bottom  upward,  and  of  such  size  that  the  area  of  its  roof  is 
equal  to  that  of  the  pier  to  be  supported.  All  joints  are  made  prac- 
tically air-tight,  the  sides  and  the  roof  are  strongly  braced  and  in  the 
roof  are  cut  two  holes,  the  larger  about  3  feet  in  diameter,  in  which 
is  fitted  an  upright  steel  tube  of  varying  length.  Within  the  tube  is 
an  air  lock,  i.  e.,  a  chamber  with  two  sets  of  doors  opening  downward. 
Men  from  the  outside  enter  the  air  lock  by  the  upper  door,  close  it, 
the  air  is  turned  on  until  the  pressure  in  the  chamber  is  equal  to  that 
of  the  caisson  underneath,  when  the  lower  door  is  opened  and  the 
men  descend.  In  arising  the  process  is  reversed,  a  lock  full  of 
compressed  air  being  lost  at  each  operation.  The  air  lock  also 
affords  an  opportunity  for  the  men  to  become  accustomed  to  the 
change  of  pressure,  for  it  is  highly  dangerous  for  them  to  pass 
directly  from  the  high  pressure  within  the  caisson  to  the  atmospheric 
pressure  without,  and  workmen  are  liable  to  attacks  of  caisson 
disease,  which  often  produces  paralysis  and  even  death.  Through 
the  small  hole  in  the  roof,  usually  4  inches  in  diameter,  a  vertical 
pipe  is  passed  terminating  in  a  right-angled  elbow  about  on  a  level 
with  the  lower  edge  of  the  walls  of  the  caisson. 

The  caisson  is  usually  brought  to  the  building  site  ready-made, 
placed  exactly  over  the  spot  it  is  intended  to  cover,  and  of  its  own 
weight  sinks  a  short  distance.  Workmen  enter  it  and  dig  away  the 
earth  underneath  and  hoist  it  out  through  the  top;  the  caisson  sinks 


IRON   AND    STEEL   WORKING.  3/9 

until  its  roof  is  on  a  level  with  the  ground.  Then  the  bricklayers 
begin  and  build  on  top  of  the  caisson  a  pier  of  the  same  size.  The 
heavier  the  pier  becomes  the  deeper  the  caisson  sinks,  the  men  inside 
continually  digging  away  underneath  it  that  it  may  settle.  The 
bricklaying  is  all  done  on  the  ground  level  and  there  is  no  expense 
incurred  in  hoisting  or  lowering  this  material.  As  soon  as  the  same 
depth  as  that  of  the  adjoining  foundations  is  reached  the  air  lock  is 
closed  and  the  work  then  begins  under  compressed  air,  which  prevents 
the  shifting  of  the  adjacent  ground  and  the  entrance  of  water. 
When  it  becomes  difficult  to  keep  up  an  even  pressure  in  the  caisson 
and  remove  the  excavated  material  by  way  of  the  air  lock  the  material 
is  pulverized  and  thrown  in  front  of  the  mouth  of  the  small  pipe,  a 
valve  in  the  pipe  is  opened,  and  the  material  literally  blown  out. 
The  operation  of  digging  out  below  and  building  on  above  is  con- 
tinued until  the  desired  depth  is  reached.  When  bed  rock  is  struck, 
if  the  rock  is  level  nothing  is  done  to  it,  but  it  usually  slopes,  and  if 
the  slopes  be  gentle  its  face  is  roughened  to  prevent  the  material 
resting  upon  it  from  sliding.  If  the  slope  is  considerable  the  rock  is 
either  cut  to  a  level  or  into  steps.  The  large  tube  and  the  small 
pipe  are  continued  upward  as  fast  as  the  pier  is  built,  and  when  the 
caisson  rests  upon  bed  rock  and  the  brickwork  of  the  pier  is  finished, 
the  interior  of  the  caisson  and  the  pipe  is  filled  with  concrete  and  the 
pier  completed  without  disturbing  in  the  least  any  of  the  surrounding 
structures.  The  sinking  of  one  caisson  does  not  interfere  with  the 
sinking  of  another  one  close  by  and  one  large  air  compressor  can  be 
profitably  employed  to  supply  several  caissons,  thus  saving  expense 
and  time. 

A  foundation  built  on  piles  is  frequently  employed  where  the 
bed  rock  is  at  a  great  depth  and  the  weight  to  be  supported  not  ex- 
cessive. Piles  are  long  straight  timbers  from  8  to  18  inches  in 
diameter  and  from  20  to  40  feet  long.  They  support  the  weight 


380          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

resting  upon  them  either  by  being  driven  through  soft,  yielding  ma- 
terial to  hard  strata  underneath,  in  which  case  they  sustain  a  verti- 
cal pressure,  or  by  the  friction  which  their  sides  offer  to  the  material 
in  which  they  are  driven. 

Sand  piles  are  sometimes  used  in  soft  earth  free  from  water. 
These  are  made  by  siriking  holes  six  or  eight  inches  in  diameter  sev- 
eral feet  and  filling  them  with  sand,  the  sand  being  free  to  move. 
The  weight  of  the  foundation  resting  upon  it  is  distributed  to  the 
sides  as  well  as  the  bottom  and  if  the  soil  underneath  be  kept  from 
spreading  sidewise  the  foundation  is  a  fairly  good  one. 

Wooden  piles  driven  under  water  will  practically  last  forever. 
Excavations  in  the  Thames  have  brought  to  the  surface  in  good  con- 
dition wooden  foundations  placed  there  in  the  fifteenth  century  and 
a  Viking  ship  of  the  tenth  or  eleventh  century  was  excavated  in  Nor- 
way in  1875  with  its  timber  perfectly  sound. 

Steel  grillage  is  often  used  in  soft  soil,  as  in  that  of  Chicago. 
The  area  of  the  foundation  must  be  great  enough  so  each  square  foot 
will  not  be  called  upon  to  carry  more  than  I  y2  or  2  tons.  After 
the  excavation  has  been  made  a  thick  layer. of  concrete  is  put  in. 
On  this  is  placed  a  tier  of  parallel  steel  rails  which  have  been  heated 
and  dipped  in  hot  asphalt  or  coal  tar  to  protect  them  from  rusting. 
The  spaces  between  the  rails  are  tamped  full  of  concrete,  a  second 
tier  of  rails  are  laid  on  at  right  angles  and  the  process  repeated  until 
the  desired  depth  has  been  obtained. 

In  big  buildings  it  is  essential  that  every  inch  of  area  be  utilized 
and  the  walls  are  therefore  set  exactly  even  with  the  boundary  line. 
But  it  would  never  do  to  rest  all  the  weight  of  a  modern  sky  scraper 
on  the  outer  edge  of  a  foundation,  for  the  latter  would  tip  over 
under  its  load.  The  cantilever  (Figures  I.  and  II.),  so  extensively 
used  in  bridges,  is  here  employed  except  that  it  is  turned  upside 
down.  The  pier  is  built  with  its  center  some  distance  inside  the 


IRON  AND    STEEL   WORKING.  381 

party  line,  and   the  wall  does  not  rise  on  the  pier  but  on  the  short 

arm   of  the  cantilever,  for  which  the  pier  acts  as  a   fulcrum.     The 

long  arm   of  the  cantilever  is  carried   back 

under  the  building  and  there  helps  support    Yiel  F'    TT 

central  columns  or  is  anchored   to  a  central 

pier.      It   can  be  truthfully   said   that   the 

walls  of  a  modern  building  do  not  even  rest 

upon  the  foundation. 

Many  buildings  extend  several  stories  below  ground  and  these 
stones  are  usually  filled  with  the  machinery  necessary  for  running 
the  building,  but  many  of  the  spaces  are  coming  to  be  used  as  barber 
shops,  restaurants,  and  offices.  Such  possess  the  advantage  of  an 
equable  temperature  and  freedom  from  noise  and  dust.  It  would 
not  be  surprising  if  the  next  revolution  in  architecture  consisted  in 
digging  deeper  into  the  earth  instead  of  building  higher  into  the  air. 
White  glazed  tilings  for  walls,  electricity  for  light,  steam  for  heat, 
forced  draft  for  ventilation,  and  an  efficient  elevator  service  render  it 
entirely  possible. 

The  steel  used  in  the  skeleton  of  a  sky  scraper  must  be  of  good 
quality  and  the  building  regulations  of  cities  usually  make  provision 
for  its  test,  and  the  specifications  of  any  important  building  are  sure 
to  provide  for  it.  In  a  general  way  the  framework  may  be  said  to 
be  divided  into  two  parts,  the  vertical  and  the  horizontal.  The 
vertical  part  consists  of  columns ;  the  horizontal,  of  beams,  girders, 
and  lintels.  The  steel  work  is  not  made  solid,  for  that  would  be  too 
heavy  and  expensive,  and  greater  strength  in  proportion  to  the 
weight  can  be  obtained  by  building  up  the  columns  from  several 
pieces. 

Cross  sections  of  three  forms  of  column  construction  are  repre- 
sented by  Figure  III.  The  beams  are  usually  rolled  solid  and  the 
form  most  commonly  employed  is  the  I  beam,  so  called  because  its 


382 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


cross  section  is  the  shape  of  the  capital  letter  "  I."  This  form  gives 
the  maximum  strength  with  the  minimum  material.  Columns  are 
made  as  long  as  the  height  of  two  stories  and  so  arranged  that  they 
will  break  joints  at  alternate  floors,  thus  giving  a  much  stiffer  struc- 
Bg.Hi.  ture  than  if  the  joints  were  all 

on  the  same  level.  The  found- 
ation piers  are  usually  capped 
by  a  thick  granite  pier  stone 


upon  which  is  placed  a  huge 
cast  iron  pedestal  to  receive  and  distribute  the  pressure  equally  over 
the  entire  area'  of  the  pier.  On  the  pedestal  is  set  the  column  base 
made  of  steel  and  strong  enough  to  support  all  the  weight  above. 
All  iron  and  steel  work  is  carefully  protected  from  moisture,  usually 
by  giving  it  a  coat  of  hot  asphalt,  and  the  steel  work  receives  at  least 
two  coats  of  protective  paint.  • 

Usually  the  framework  of  each  floor  is  practically  completed  be- 
fore that  of  the  next  is  set  up.  The  parts  are  hoisted  to  their  places 
by  aid  of  derricks  and  bolted  together  until  they  can  be  riveted.  It 
speaks  wonders  for  the  accuracy  of  modern  workshops  that  the  steel 
skeleton  of  a  building  can  be  planned  in  one  city,  manufactured  in 
another,  shipped  to  and  set  up  in  a  third,  and  the  whole  found  to 
accurately  agree.  As  soon  as  the  beams  are  in  place  the  gang  of 
riveters  take  up  their  work.  Numerous  portable  forges  are  located 
at  convenient  places,  the  rivet  is  heated,  tossed  to  the  riveter,  who 
presses  the  trigger  of  a  pneumatic  hammer,  and  the  rivet  is  headed 
in  an  instant. 

Wind  pressure  must  be  allowed  for  if  the  building  is  to  exceed 
75  feet  in  height.  An  allowance  of  30  pounds  is  usually  made  for 
each  square  foot  exposed,  a  pressure  sufficient  to  blow  an  empty 
freight  car  off  the  track. 

The  rapidity  with  which  the  steel  skeleton    can  be  erected  is  as- 


IRON   AND    STEEL    WORKING.  383 

tonishing.  The  Fisher  Building  of  Chicago  has  a  frontage  of  100 
feet  on  two  streets  and  70  feet  6  inches  on  a  third.  The  first  piece 
of  structural  steel  was  set  in  this,  October  3,  1895,  and  nineteen 
stories,  including  the  attic,  were  put  in  position  in  26  days,  5  days 
being  lost  on  account  of  bad  weather. 

As  soon  as  the  framework  of  a  floor  is  set  and  riveted  the  work  of 
building  the  walls  and  the  floor  is  begun  at  once,  and  by  the  time  the 
roof  is  on  nearly  all  the  walls  and  floors  are  completed  and  the  fin- 
ishers are  at  work  in  the  lower  stories.  In  some  buildings  the  lower 
floors  have  been  finished  and  used  before  the  roof  was  completed. 
The  capital  invested,  from  which  no  return  can  be  obtained  till  the 
building  is  rented,  renders  the  economy  of  time  essential  and  the 
work  is  so  thoroughly  systematized  and  skillfully  planned  that  but 
little  time  is  lost. 

Fireproof  buildings  do  not  exist  if  we  are  to  understand  by  fire- 
proof a  building  that  cannot  be  injured  by  fire.  Steel  skeletons 
under  the  influence  of  heat  expand,  lose  their  rigidity,  and  collapse 
under  their  load.  Special  precautions  are  taken  to  construct  the 
building  so  that  different  divisions  can  be  isolated.  Fire  resisting 
floors  are  used,  metal  doors  employed  at  frequent  intervals  along  the 
passages,  the  openings  from  one  story  to  another  made  as  few  as 
possible,  apparatus  within  the  building  for  fighting  fire, —  all  tending 
to  reduce  danger.  Tiling  for  floors  of  offices  and  corridors  and  alumi- 
num or  some  other  metal  for  finishings,  in  place  of  wood,  reduce  fire 
risks. 

The  steel  skeleton  is  protected  by  a  layer  (walls)  of  some  incom- 
bustible material,  usually  fire  brick  or  terra  cotta.  Granite  and 
marble  are  not  good  fire  resisting  materials;  under  the  influence  of 
heat  marble  crumbles  into  dust.  Fire  brick  can  withstand  intense 
heat,  as  witnessed  by  their  use  in  iron  and  steel  smelting.  Terra 
cotta,  which  is  almost  as  good,  is  made  by  mixing  fire  clay  with  saw- 


384  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN  MECHANISM. 

dust  and  molding  the  mass  when  plastic  into  any  desired  form,  for 
intricate  figures  are  easily  molded  from  it  and  it  has  come  to  be 
largely  used  in  place  of  stone  carvings  in  decorated  buildings.  When 
molded,  the  terra  cotta  is  subjected  to  an  intense  heat,  which  bakes 
the  clay  and  burns  out  the  sawdust,  leaving  a  light,  strong,  porous, 
fire  resisting  material  of  the  shape  and  size  desired.  The  fire  brick, 
of  which  protective  walls  are  made,  are  pressed  in  such  shape  that 
they  bond  or  interlock  in  the  wall  and  are  set  in  cement  mortar  which 
hardens  and  becomes  almost  as  strong  as  the  brick  itself.  An  air 
space  is  left  between  the  brick  and  the  steel,  for  air  is  one  of  the 
best  nonconductors  of  heat.  Fire  brick  are  expensive  and  for  a  large 
building  may  easily  cost  $50,000. 

Fireproof  floors  have  been  the  subject  of  numerous  patents.  The 
general  principle  is  about  as  follows.  The  parallel  steel  floor  girders 
are  connected  at  right  angles  by  lighter  floor  beams  dividing  the  floor 
space  into  regular  rectangular  spaces.  These  spaces  must  be  covered 
by  the  floor  and  over  them  bars  are  hung  from  beam  to  beam,  or 
arches  are  built  of  hollow  fire  brick  to  form  a  base  on  which  a  layer 
of  concrete  coming  2  inches  above  the  floor  girders  is  spread,  and  on 
the  concrete  are  set  wooden  stringers  to  which  the  rough  flooring  is 
nailed.  On  the  lower  edge  of  the  beams  a  heavy  horizontal  wire 
netting  is  hung  to  which  is  attached  the  metal  lath  which  in  turn 
supports  the  plaster  of  the  ceiling.  The  modern  roof  amounts  prac- 
tically to  another  floor. 

Windows  of  Steel  and  Glass.  All  skylights  and  most  exposed 
windows  are  of  glass,  made  with  a  network  of  steel  wire  pressed  inside 
it,  so  if  the  glass  is  broken  the  pieces  do  not  fall  out  but  stay  in 
place.  The  wire  increases  the  strength  of  the  glass  and  reduces  the 
danger  of  fire  from  exposed  windows,  but  most  windows  are  further 
protected  by  rolling  steel  shutters  or  ironclad  doors. 

Spaces  in  the  walls  are  left  for  steam  pipes,  gas  pipes,  electric  wire 


IRON   AND    STEEL    WORKING.  385 

conduits,  plumbing,  and  water  pipes,  as  well  as  for  the  ventilating 
system, —  all  hidden  away  in  the  walls  so  that  they  may  not  take  up 
valuable  floor  space.  The  Manhattan  Life  Building  has  10^  miles 
of  piping  and  35  miles  of  electric  wires.  Electricity  is  generally  em- 
ployed for  lighting  and  most  large  buildings  have  their  power  and 
lighting  plants.  Steam  heating  is  most  satisfactory,  and  modern 
buildings  are  now  furnished  with  cooling  systems  so  that  not  only  is 
the  cold  of  winter  kept  out,  but  the  heat  of  summer  is  made  bearable. 

The  elevator  or  vertical  railroad  is  the  heart  of  the  sky  scraper 
and  through  this  channel  flows  several  times  each  day  the  circulating 
life  of  the  building.  Upon  the  efficiency  of  this  system  depends  the 
success  of  the  building,  for  tenants  do  not  like  to  climb  stairs.  Two 
general  systems  of  elevators  are  used,  the  hydraulic  and  the  electric. 
Very  tall  buildings  have  "way"  and  "express"  elevators.  One  set 
of  elevators  stops  at  each  one  of  the  first  ten  floors,  another  set  makes 
the  first  stop  at  the  eleventh  and  stops  at  every  floor  up  to  the  twen- 
tieth;  the  third  will  not  stop  until  the  twenty-first  floor  is  reached 
and  will  serve  the  floors  above  that  level.  Freight  elevators  are  also 
required,  moving  much  slower  but  with  a  great  lifting  capacity. 

The  air  cushion,  one  of  the  best  safeguards  against  accidents 
in  the  elevator  service,  has  the  bottom  of  the  elevator  shaft  made 
air-tight,  into  which  the  elevator  fits  closely,  so  if  the  cab  falls  it  is 
brought  to  a  gradual  stop  by  the  cushion  effect  of  the  air  in  the  bot- 
tom of  the  shaft.  Numerous  safety  devices  have  been  invented  in- 
tended to  grasp  the  guides  at  the  sides  of  the  shaft  and  stop  the  cab, 
but  serious  accidents  which  occur  from  time  to  time  show  that  the 
system  is  not  yet  perfect.  In  "The  Rookery,"  a  modern  office 
building  of  Chicago,  one  of  the  first  built  and  by  no  means  the  larg- 
est, there  are  ten  passenger  elevators  for  the  3200  people  in  the 
building.  An  account  kept  from  day  to  day  shows  that  from  22,000 
to  2 3,000  passengers  are  carried, — enough  to  make  quite  a  respectable 


386  THE   MARVELS   OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

small  city.  "  'The  Rookery'  is  a  town  within  itself.  It  has  in  the 
basement  its  own  power  plant,  its  own  pumps,  its  own  heating  ar- 
rangements, its  own  electrical  service.  It  has  its  own  carpenters,  its 
own  painters,  its  own  plumbers,  and  every  mechanic  necessary  is  em- 
ployed in  the  building  permanently.  They  start  from  the  roof  and 
work  down  to  the  ground  as  regularly  as  the  years  roll  on.  By  the 
time  they  reach  the  ground  itself,  or  the  basement,  the  top  of  the 
building  is  in  a  condition  to  need  their  work  once  more,  and  they 
repeat  the  process,  so  that  the  building,  after  its  twelve  or  thirteen 
years  of  life,  is  practically  as  good  as  it  was  on  the  day  it  was  built." 

The  Masonic  Temple  of  Chicago  has  20  stories,  14  elevators, 
and  rises  274  feet  above  the  sidewalk.  It  was  built  in  1891  and  cost 
58  cents  per  cubic  foot.  The  Ames  Building  of  Boston,  the  highest 
in  l^ew  England,  has  13  stories  and  is  186  feet  from  the  curbing  to 
the  top  of  the  cornice.  Broad  Street  station  of  the  Pennsylvania 
railroad  is  the  tallest  business  building  in  Philadelphia,  being  io 
stories  high  in  the  tallest  part  and  rising  at  one  corner  to  a  height 
240  feet  above  the  curbing. 

The  Pulitzer  Building,  the  home  of  the  New  York  World,  when 
built  in  1890  was  the  tallest  business  building  in  the  world.  It  is  15 
stories  high,  cost  $1,500,000  and  measures  375  feet  from  the  bottom 
of  its  foundations  to  the  top  of  the  flagstaff.  The  following  table 
gives  the  number  of  stories  and  the  height  of  some  other  famous 
New  York  buildings:  — 

Stories  Height 

Ivins  Syndicate  Building  39  {  3g  feet  to  jorftop 

Manhattan  Life  Building  17  j  24^ 

St.  Paul  Building  26  308 

Amerian  Surety  Building  23  306 

American  Tract  Society  Building  21  306 

Empire  Building  20  304 

Commercial  Cable  Building  21  304 

Bowling  Green  Building  19  272 

New  York  Life  Building  12  270 

Central  Bank  Building  15  219 

Waldorf-Astoria  Hotel  16  214 


tower  top 
roof  top 
tower  top 


6  inches 
to  tower  top 


IRON    AND    STEEL    WORKING.  387 

The  Boston  South  Terminal  station  occupies  3  5  acres  of  ground, 
of  which  13  acres  is  covered  by  the  building  itself.  It  seems  but  ap- 
propriate that  this  structure,  built  to  accommodate  a  traffic  unknown 
less  than  a  century  ago,  should  stand  on  made  ground,  for  its  whole 
site  was  not  so  very  long  ago  covered  by  the  ocean.  The  train  shed 
is  602  feet  long,  570  feet  wide,  and  covered  by  one  vast  self-support- 
ing roof,  the  trusses  of  which  are  of  the  cantilever  type.  The  tracks 
are  arranged  in  two  decks,  the  long  distance  traffic  coming  in  at 
ordinary  level  and  the  local  traffic  into  the  huge  basement  directly 
underneath  and  having  a  double  track  loop  so  that  incoming  trains 
may  discharge  their  passengers,  reload,  and  pass  out  without  the 
usual  trouble  of  making  up  a  train,  such  a  gain  that  a  train  can  be 
discharged  every  minute.  This  two  story  arrangement  of  tracks  is 
an  innovation  and  a  great  saving,  for  while  it  cost  but  6  per  cent, 
additional  to  construct,  it  about  doubled  the  capacity  of  the  station. 

The  subway  in  which  the  local  trains  run  is  7  feet  below  high 
tide,  and  the  floor  of  this  huge  basement,  about  10  acres  in  extent, 
is  supported  by  26,000  cedar  piles,  on  top  of  which  is  placed  a  layer  of 
concrete  and  ten  layers  of  tar  paper,  each  layer  separated  by  tar 
compound.  The  whole  is  covered  with  an  additional  layer  of  con- 
crete, making  a  water-tight  floor  nearly  3  feet  in  thickness.  Around 
the  sides,  to  shut  off  the  water,  a  sheet  piling  made  of  plank  40  feet 
in  length  was  driven,  and  the  whole  backed  up  by  brick  walls.  The 
whole  structure  rests  upon  piles,  of  which  43,000  were  used. 

Compressed  air  with  electric  control  operates  the  250  single 
switches,  the  37  double  slip  switches,  the  283  movable  frogs,  and  150 
semaphore  signals.  Two  hundred  signal  lights  are  employed.  The 
building  in  its  highest  part  is  five  stories  high,  the  decoration  of  the 
frontage  and  entrance  rendering  it  not  only  imposing  but  beautiful. 
About  750  trains  arrive  and  depart  daily,  and  in  1900  2i,OOO,OOO 
passengers  passed  through  its  portals. 


388 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


Some  idea  of  the  immensity  of  the  structure  can  be  gained  from 
the  fact  that  150,000  square  feet  of  glass,  in  which  is  imbedded  a 
network  of  steel  wire,  was  used  for  its  roof.  The  wire  not  only 
makes  the  glass  stronger  and  better  able  to  bear  up  under  loads  of 
snow  and  ice  but  renders  it  possible  to  make  it  much  lighter,  a  con- 
siderable item  when  the  weight  of  the  whole  roof  is  taken  into  con- 
sideration. Sixteen  million  bricks  were  used  in  the  structure  and  200 
acres  of  surface  required  painting,  and  the  putty  alone,  200  tons, 
weighs  more  than  the  fleet  with  which  Columbus  discovered  America. 

This  station,  costing  $12,000,000,  takes  the  record  for  the  largest 
one  on  the  continent  from  St.  Louis,  and  is  probably  the  largest  in 
the  world. 


NICKEL.  STEEL  INGOT  CAST  FOR  THE  TUBE  OF  126-TON  GUN. 
Manufactured  for  the  United  States  Army  by  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


MILITARY  ART  AND  SCIENCE. 


Evolution  of  Armor  and  the  Different  Processes — Contest  between  Armor  and  Gun  — 
Projectiles — Evolution  of  the  Metallic  Cartridge  —  Evolution  of  the  Rifle  —  Evolution  of 
the  Revolver  —  Automatic  Pistols  —  Evolution  of  the  Modern  Cannon  —  The  most  Power- 
ful Gun  in  the  World  —  Rapid  Fire  and  Machine  Guns  —  Evolution  of  the  Modern  War 
Ship —  "  Constitution  "  Compared  with  the  "  Oregon  "  —  Classes  of  Ships  and  the  Work 
for  which  Each  is  designed  —  Torpedoes — Submarine  Boats  —  Military  Explosives  — 
Smokeless  Powder  and  Its  Influence  on  Modern  Warfare  —  Cordite  —  Lyddite  —  Gun 
Cotton  —  Nitroglycerin  —  Explosive  Gelatin. 


T 


'HE  "Massacre  of  Sinope"called 
attention  to  the  necessity  of 
armor  to  keep  out  the  destructive 
explosive  shell  which  not  only  pene- 
trated the  ship's  side  but  burst  into 
fragments,  killing  and  wounding 
those  in  its  vicinity,  while  the 
powder  charge  which  it  contained 
set  fire  to  everything  inflammable. 
Then  began  a  battle  royal  between 

the  gun   maker  and  the  armorer  with  first  honors  for  the  armorer. 
The   first   thin  plates  of  wrought   iron  armor  were  plainly  superior 
•  to  the  gun. 

In  the  famous  battle  between  the  "  Monitor  "  and  the  "  Merri- 
mac,"  the  armor  of  neither  ship  was  penetrated,  and  some  of  the 
American  monitors  employed  in  the  Civil  War  received  a  great  num- 
ber of  hits  without  being  much  damaged;  Weehawken  187  hits,  Mon- 
tauk  214  hits.  It  was  the  gun  maker's  turn  next  and  he  produced  a 
rifle  cannon  firing  a  long  heavy  cast  iron  projectile  instead  of  a  round 
shot.  This  penetrated  the  plate  and  scored  the  first  victory  for  the 
gun.  The  armorer,  seeing  he  must  defeat  the  projectile  by  breaking 


39°  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN   MECHANISM. 

it  up,  welded  a  steel  face  over  his  wrought  iron  plate  and  produced 
"  compound  armor."  The  British  warship  Inflexible  is  to-day  carry- 
ing 24  inches  of  compound  armor.  Her  name  is  well  chosen  but  it 
would  be  better  if  her  armor  were  more  elastic,  for  the  development 
of  the  Palliser  cast  steel  shot  with  a  "  chilled"  point  broke  up  com- 
pound armor. 

The  Siemens  process  of  steel  making  rendered  large  masses  of 
steel  available  for  the  armorer  and  it  was  used  in  place  of  iron.  The 
gun  maker  replied  with  the  steel  projectile.  Then  came  the  addition 
of  three  per  cent,  to  five  per  cent,  nickel  to  the  armor,  making  it 
tough  and  less  likely  to  crack,  only  to  be  met  in  turn  by  a  projectile 
to  which  chromium  had  been  added,  making  it  even  tougher. 

The  Harvey  process  was  the  armorer's  reply.  It  consists  in 
placing  the  face  of  the  steel  armor  on^a  layer  of  charcoal,  covering 
the  other  side  with  a  bed  of  sand,  and  subjecting  the  whole  mass  to 
intense  heat  for  from  five  to  twenty-seven  days.  The  carbon  from 
the  charcoal  penetrated  the  face  of  the  armor  an  inch  or  an  inch  and 
a  quarter  and  rendered  it  extremely  hard,  while  the  back  of  the  armor 
retained  all  the  toughness  of  the  original  steel.  Armor  then  scored 
a  decided  victory,  for  Harveyized  armor  was  easily  superior  in  thick 
plates  to  twice,  and  in  thin  plates  to  two  and  a  half  times,  its  thick- 
ness of  wrought  iron. 

The  gun  maker  had  not  been  idle  but  had  called  to  his  assistance 
the  powder  maker,  and  smokeless  powder  took  a  hand  in  the  contest. 
This  did  not  give  such  a  severe  strain  to  the  breech  of  the  gun  and 
so  required  less  metal  there,  and  the  gun  maker  applied  the  weight 
thus  saved  to  the  muzzle,  changed  the  length  of  his  gun  from  30  cal- 
ibers to  50  calibers,  and  with  the  progressive  burning  smokeless 
powder  raised  the  velocity  of,  his  projectile  and  gave  it  a  greater 
penetrating  force.  Meanwhile  the  armorer  was  not  resting  on  his 
laurels.  He  was  building  enormous  steel  hammers,  annealing,  re- 


fc 

D 

o 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  39! 

forging,  and  tempering  his  armor,  thereby  materially  improving  its 
resisting  power. 

As  an  example  of  the  expense  connected  with  the  manufacture  of 
vast  quantities  of  steel  armor,  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Company  bought 
of  the  Canet  Company  of  France  the  right  to  use  certain  secret 
methods  of  armor  making  and  built  a  125-ton  steam  hammer,  the 
largest  one  ever  made,  to  reforge  their  armor.  A  comparatively 
recent  improvement,  called  the  Krupp  process,  has  rendered  this 
hammer  obsolete  and  the  investment  a  loss,  for  the  armorer  goes 
back  a  step  farther  and  applies  enormous  hydraulic  pressure  to  his 
steel  while  it  is  in  a  molten  state. 

To-day  the  short  gun  is  obsolete  and  the  speed  of  the  projectile 
has  been  raised  from  2000  feet  to  3000  feet  per  second.  The 
armorer  has  made  it  possible  to  give  protection  by  thin  armor  to 
about  all  parts  of  the  ship  and  has  produced  armor  an  inch  of  which 
is  equal  to  3.35  inches  of  wrought  iron.  On  the  proving  ground, 
where  armor  and  guns  are  tested  under  the  most  favorable  conditions, 
the  gun  is  able  to  penetrate  the  best  armor,  but  the  conditions  of  the 
proving  ground  are  not  those  of  battle.  For  example,  by  inclosing 
the  hardened  point  of  his  projectile  in  a  soft  steel  cap  the  gun  maker 
increased  his  penetration  15  to  20  per  cent.  The  armorer  claims 
the  steel  cap  is  of  advantage  only  when  the  shot  strikes  at  nearly 
a  right  angle,  and  that  at  a  greater  angle,  instead  of  being  an  aid, 
it  is  a  hindrance. 

The  gun  maker  has  derived  great  assistance  from  smokeless 
powder,  but  the  recent  armor  made  by  the  Carnegie  Company  accord- 
ing to  the  Krupp  process,  for  the  Russian  battleship  built  by  the 
Cramps  Company,  showed  great  resisting  power.  A  high  English 
authority  says :  "  Our  12-inch  gun  perforates  36.8  wrought  iron  at 
the  muzzle,  but  our  best  gun  would  hardly  cut  through  the  actual 
barbette  plates  of  this  ship.  We  should  prefer  to  attack  such  a 


392 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


ship  elsewhere  with  common  shell."  If  the  fine,  sharp  point  of  the 
projectile  can  be  preserved  it  .  renders  the  penetration  of  an  armor 
plate  much  easier.  If  the  face  of  the  armor  plate  can  be  hardened 
until  it  will  break  up  the  point  of  the  projectile  it  has  achieved  its 
purpose. 

Capped  or  soft-pointed  shot  are  popular  in  America  ;  not  so 
abroad.  The  cap  is  a  piece  of  soft  steel  placed  over  the  point  of  the 
shot  with  a  layer  of  lubricant  between  them.  On  striking  the  armor 
the  cap  dishes  it  to  its  elastic  limit  and  the  shot  passes  through  the 
cap  aided  by  the  lubricant  and  attacks  the  plate  after  the  cap  has 

pushed  it  as  far  as  it  will 
spring,  and  the  plate  has  left 
only  the  local  resistance.  The 
cap  further  aids  by  tending 
to  hold  the  steel  in  the  pro- 
jectile point  together  as  the 
hoops  about  a  barrel  hold  the 
staves. 

Projectiles  for  modern  can- 
non are  known  as  common  shell, 
armor -piercing  shell,  and  shrap- 
nel. 

Common  shell  are  made  of 
cast  or  drawn  steel  with  thin 
walls  so  they  will  hold  a  large 
bursting  charge.  Finegrained 

black  powder,  rifle  powder,  is  preferable  as  an  explosive  charge  if 
used  against  woodwork,  as  it  sets  fire  to  it.  Common  shell  are  used 
against  earthworks,  buildings,  or  unarmored  sides  of  ships.  They  won 
the  victory  at  Santiago  for  "if  a  ship  can  be  set  on  fire,  riddled  with 
small  shot,  driven  to  surrender  in  a  few  minutes  by  the  attack  of  ex- 


FORGED  STEEL  COMMON  SHELL. 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCItNCE. 


393 


Weight  of 
Shell 

Weight  of 
Bursting  Charge 

I  lb. 

250  grains 

3  Ibs. 

600 

3  Ibs. 

900 

6  Ibs. 

145° 

33  Ibs. 

2   lb 

50  Ibs. 

3 

100  Ibs. 

3/^ 

250  Ibs. 

10 

500  Ibs. 

3° 

850  Ibs. 

60 

850  Ibs. 

36 

uoo  Ibs. 

5° 

plosive  shell  on  her  upper  structure,  the  protection  of  her  so-called 
vital  parts  has  availed  her  nothing.  This  [Santiago]  indicates  the 
great  value  of  shell  fire  attack  against  ships  which  afford  an  opening 
for  it."  The  following  table  gives  weight  of  common  shell  and  usual 
bursting  charge:  — 

Gun 

i-pdr.  and  37  mm.  R.  C. 
47  mm.  R.  C. 

3-pdr. 

6-pdr. 

4-in. 

5-in. 

6-in. 

8-in. 
ic-in. 

i2-in.  Cast  Steel 
i2-in.  Forged  Steel 
i3-in.  Forged  Steel 

On  armor-piercing  shell  have  been  lavished  the  greatest  care  and 
the  best  mechanical  ingenuity 
of  the  age.  They  are  made 
of  the  best  steel  with  special 
alloys,  are  reforged,  annealed, 
tempered  with  acids,  tempered 
in  gas,  capped  with  a  soft 
nose ;  in  short,  every  improve- 
ment that  the  ingenuity  of 
man  could  devise  has  been  ex- 
pended upon  them.  The  point 
is  made  extremely  hard  and 
the  walls  about  the  point 
heavy,  growing  thinner  tow- 
ard the  base.  The  interior  is 

bored  out,  to  relieve  the  internal  tension  caused  by  forging,  temper- 
ing, etc.  An  armor-piercing  shell  is  expected  to  penetrate  soft  steel 


FORGED  STEEL  ARMOR-PIERCING  SHELL. 


394  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

without  losing  its  point  or  being  materially  deformed.  The  cavity 
is  closed  by  screwing  into  the  base  a  steel  plug.  To  insure  a  tight  fit 
in  the  gun  a  groove  is  cut  around  the  base  of  the  shell  and  into  this 
a  copper  band  is  forced  by  hydraulic  pressure.  The  shell  is  made 
nearly  the  exact  diameter  of  the  bore  of  the  'gun  and  the  copper 
band  somewhat  larger.  When  driven  by  the  explosion  of  the  pow- 
der up  into  the  bore  of  the  gun,  the  copper,  being  soft,  is  forced  into 
the  grooves  of  the  rifling,  forms  a  gas-tight  joint  so  the  hot  powder 
gases  cannot  'escape,  and  as  the  projectile  travels  through  the  bore 
of  the  gun  the  copper  band  clings  to  the  grooves  and  the  lands  of 
the  rifling  and  gives  the  spinning  motion  to  the  shot  which  prevents 
it  from  tumbling  end  over  end  in  its  flight.  The  walls  are  so  strong 
and  the  cavity  so  small  in  a  shell  designed  to  pierce  heavy  armor 
that  the  small  charge  of  gunpowder  it  would  hold  is  not  likely  to 
burst  the  shell.  Some  high  explosives  like  jovite  or  gun  cotton  must 
be  used  if  it  is  to  carry  an  explosive  charge.  A  single  armor-piercing 
shell  may  easily  cost  from  $300  to  $500. 

Shrapnel  shell  are  named  after  their  inventor,  Lieutenant  Shrap- 
nel of  the  British  army,  who  brought  them  out  about  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  Shrapnel  are  made  of  cast  steel  with  thin 
walls,  the  cavity  filled  with  small  leaden  balls,  packed  in  sulphur  inclos- 
ing a  small  bursting  charge  of  powder.  Shrapnel  is  used  against  boats 
and  exposed  bodies  of  men,  and  the  bursting  charge  is  intended  to 
explode  before  reaching  the  target,  scattering  the  balls  and  driving 
them  forward.  The  sulphur  is  used  merely  to  hold  the  balls  in  place. 
Shrapnel  is  not  very  effective  against  men  in  trenches,  but  it  makes 
them  keep  their  heads  down  and  so  prevents  a  return  rifle  fire. 
Common  shell  are  more  effective  on  trenches  than  shrapnel,  but  men 
are  not  much  more  apt  to  be  hit  in  firing  position  than  when  lying 
down,  hence  common  shell  do  not  keep  down  return  rifle  fire. 
Common  shell  loaded  with  lyddite  were  largely  used  in  South  Africa 


MILITARY   ART  AND    SCIENCE.  395 

but  high  explosives  seem  to  waste  the  most  of  their  energy  in  tear- 
ing the  shell  into  very  small  bits,  and  lyddite  shells  were  a  disappoint- 
ment. Against  masses  of  men  on  open  ground  shrapnel  is  a  partic- 
ularly destructive  charge. 

Fuses.  All  shells  may  be  exploded  by  a  fuse  either  at  the  nose 
or  at  the  base.  The  general  classes  are  time  and  percussion  fuses. 
A  time  fuse  can  be  set  so  as  to  explode  the  bursting  charge  at  any 
time  after  leaving  the  gun  ;  percussion  fuses  are  exploded  whenever 
the  projectile  strikes  an  obstacle.  Time  fuses  for  shrapnel  may  be 
set  at  thirds  of  seconds  up  to  fifteen  seconds.  Many  styles  of  fuses 
are  used  and  their  action  is  too  intricate  to  be  described  within  the 
limits  of  this  book. 

The  Gathmann  shell,  invented  by  Louis  Gathmann  of  Chicago 
for  firing  gun  cotton  as  a  bursting  charge,  is  made  with  a  strong  head 
and  thin  walls;  the  copper  band  is  placed  at  the  junction  of  the 
head  and  body  of  the  shell  instead  of  at  the  base,  and  the  base  is 
closed  by  a  movable  gas-tight  plug  or  piston.  When  the  gun  is  dis- 
charged the  pressure  drives  the  base  plug  against  the  gun  cotton,  and 
so  the  pressure  within  the  shell  balances  the  pressure  on  the  outside 
and  allows  thin  shells  to  be  used,  giving  room  for  a  larger  bursting 
charge.  The  theory  was  not  verified  in  the  test  for  the  shell  burst 
before  leaving  the  bore  and  wrecked  the  gun. 

A  special  gun  was  ordered  to  further  test  the  theory,  which 
assumes  that  large  quantities  of  powerful  explosives  bursting  against 
a  ship  will  wreck  it.  The  experiments  do  not  bear  out  the  theory. 
A  shell  with  thin  walls  certainly  cannot  penetrate  any  considerable 
thickness  of  armor,  and  307  pounds  of  wet  gun  cotton  lying  right 
against  a  sample  of  the  Kearsarge  side  armor  was  exploded  and  only 
burned  the  face  of  the  plate  a  little.  Chickens  were  placed  at  vary- 
ing distances.  One  43  feet  away  was  struck  by  a  piece  of  the  shell  and 
killed,  but  its  feathers  were  not  blown  off;  one  just  the  other  side  of 


396  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

the  armor  plate  was  not  hurt  at  all.      It  was  evident  the  explosion 
would  have  had  no  effect  on  an  armored  vessel  or  the  crew  within  it. 

The  destructive  effects  popularly  ascribed  to  high  explosives 
have  not  been  realized.  In  1871,  at  the  Stowmarket  Gun  Cotton 
Works,  England,  27,000  pounds  of  dry  gun  cotton  exploded.  The 
noise  of  the  explosion  was  heard  for  30  miles,  the  shock  was  felt  for 
7  miles,  yet  a  man  standing  on  the  railway  76  yards  from  the  maga- 
zine was  blown  over  a  hedge,  stripped  of  all  his  clothing,  but  un- 
injured. 

Experiments  with  shells  exploded  in  wooden  boxes  show  that 
high  explosives  seem  to  waste  much  of  their  energy  in  tearing  the 
shell  into  small  bits.  In  general,  then,  a  shell  charged  with  gun  cot- 
ton would  break  into  the  greater  number  of  pieces  and  kill  and  wound 
more  men,  and  the  shell  charged  with  gunpowder  would  break  into 
larger  pieces,  which  would  cause  more  destruction  to  neighboring 
structures.  Gunpowder  also  sets  fire  to  anything  inflammable,  gun 
cotton  does  not. 

The  ablest  authorities  at  present  hold  that  gun  cotton  as  a  burst- 
ing charge  has  no  advantages  over  gunpowder  commensurate  with 
the  increased  risk  attendant  upon  its  use.  Further,  it  is  not  safe  to 
fire  with  as  high  velocity  projectiles  charged  with  gun  cotton,  which 
means  for  them  an  increased  trajectory  and  less  chance  of  hitting 
the  target. 

Energy  of  Gun  Fire.  Two  English  writers,  Lord  Brassey  and 
Admiral  Colomb,  each  independently  introduced  in  1896  a  new  stand- 
ard for  measuring  gun  power  of  vessels,  i.  e.,  "  energy  of  gun  fire 
per  minute."  The  power  of  the  gun  is  the  force  its  projectile  exerts. 
This  force  is  termed  energy  and  is  measured  by  the  number  of  tons 
it  could  lift  one  foot  at  each  discharge,  hence  called  foot-tons.  The 
32-pound  carronade  of  Nelson's  time  had  a  velocity  of  750  feet  and 
its  spherical  shot  an  energy  of  about  125  tons.  The  new  1 2-inch 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  397 

naval  gun  has  a  velocity  of  2854  feet  and  its  85O-pound  projectile  a 
muzzle  energy  of  about  48,000  tons;  i.  e.,  the  force  with  which  the 
projectile  leaves  the  gun  would  be  sufficient  to  lift  that  many  tons 
one  foot.  Such  is  the  progress  of  a  single  century.  The  new  4-inch 
rifle  cannon  has  a  projectile  weighing  32  pounds,  the  same  weight  as 
that  of  the  old  carronade,  but  will  penetrate  as  great  a  thickness  of 
wrought  iron  at  1200  yards  as  the  old  carronade  could  penetrate  of 
wood  at  its  muzzle. 

Velocity  in  foot-seconds  means  the  number  of  feet  a  projectile 
flies  in  a  second.  Its  rate  of  speed  at  the  muzzle  of  the  gun  is 
called  muzzle  velocity.  Sound  travels  1 100  feet  a  second,  and  a 
bullet  from  the  best  modern  cannon  almost  three  times  as  fast  as 
sound.  There  are  several  reasons  why  high  velocity  is  desirable.  If 
the  target  is  in  motion  a  swift  moving  bullet  will  reach  it  before  it 
has  time  to  move  far.  All  projectiles  are  deflected  somewhat  by 
currents  of  air,  and  the  projectile  that  flies  a  given  distance  in  the 
shortest  time  is  deflected  less  than  one  moving  slower. 

The  Penetration  increases  almost  as  the  Velocity.  It  is  a  good 
"rule  of  thumb"  that  a  projectile  will  pierce  its  caliber  of  wrought 
iron  for  each  thousand  feet  of  its  velocity.  For  example,  a  4-inch 
projectile  moving  a  thousand  feet  a  second  would  pierce  a  plate  of 
wrought  iron  4  inches  thick.  The  same  projectile  moving  two  thou- 
sand feet  a  second  would  pierce  a  plate  8  inches  thick.  The  greater 
the  velocity  the  flatter  the  path  of  the  projectile. 

The  Trajectory.  The  path  in  which  the  projectile  travels  is  called 
its  trajectory.  A  great  deal  of  misinformation  exists  on  this  point, 
as  well  as  confusion,  as  to  the  term  "  point  blank."  Projectiles  are 
subject  to  the  same  force  of  gravitation  as  all  other  matter,  and  the 
"law  of  falling  bodies  "  is  operative  here  as  elsewhere.  If  a  pro- 
jectile is  in  the  air  one  second  the  force  of  gravity  will  cause  it  to 
fall  161*2  feet,  and  instead  of  moving  in  a  straight  line  from  the 


398          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

muzzle  of  the  gun  to  the  point  where  it  strikes  it  moves  in  a  curve, 
i.  e.,  at  its  highest  point,  16  TV  feet  above  that  straight  line.  If  its 
flight  occupies  two  seconds  of  time  its  curve  will  be  greater,  for 
gravity  will  then  cause  it  to  fall  48  j{  feet,  and  the  bullet  at  the  high- 
est point  in  its  flight  will  be  48^  feet  above  a  straight  line  drawn 
from  the  muzzle  of  the  gun  to  the  point  where  it  finally  strikes. 
This  curve  is  so  great  that  at  long  ranges  the  marksman  must  be  a 
good  judge  of  distance  or  he  will  shoot  over  or  under  his  target. 

Explosives,  no  matter  how  powerful,  cannot  suspend  the  force  of 
gravitation.  They  can  only  make  the  bullet  travel  faster  and  so  in  a 
flatter  curve. 

Danger  space  is  that  part  of  the  path  in  the  flight  of  the  bullet 
that  is  neither  too  high  nor  too  low  to  strike  the  target.  It  is  evi- 
dent then  that  a  man  standing  where  the  bullet  reaches  the  ground 
might  be  wounded  in  the  feet;  standing  nearer  to  the  gun  he  might  be 
wounded  in  the  head.  The  distance  from  the  point  where  he  would 
be  struck  in  the  feet  to  the  point  where  he  would  be  struck  in  the 
head  is  termed  the  "danger  space."  The  higher  the  velocity,  the 
straighter  the  path  of  the  ball  and  the  longer  the  danger  space,  and 
smokeless  powder,  by  giving  a  higher  velocity,  has  increased  the 
danger  space  and  rendered  it  less  necessary  for  the  gunner  to  be  a 
correct  judge  of  distance. 

Rifling  is  the  term  applied  to  the  spiral  channels  cut  in  the  bores 
of  modern  small  arms  and  cannon.  The  ridges  of  the  metal  within 
the  base  are  called  lands,  the  channels  are  called  grooves.  The  lands 
cut  into  the  projectile  as  .  it  passes  through  the  bore,  force  it  to 
rotate  as  it  follows  the  spiral  of  the  lands  and  give  it  a  spinning 
motion  when  it  leaves  the  gun.  Elongated  shot  are  preferable  to 
round  because  they  offer  less  resistance  to  the  air  in  proportion  to 
their  weight.  If  an  elongated  shot  were  fired  from  a  gun  with  a 
perfectly  smooth  bore  the  shot  would  go  tumbling  end  over  end  like 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  399 

a  club  thrown  from  the  hand,  but  if  caused  to  spin  rapidly  as  it 
leaves  the  bore  it  can  be  kept  point  first  in  its  flight. 

Shooting  with  rifles  for  prizes  was  practiced  at  Leipsic  as  long 
ago  as  1498.  A  Swiss  edict  of  1563  prohibited  rifling  because  it 
caused  quarrels  among  contestants  at  shooting  matches.  Old  rifles 
show  that  many  were  cut  with  grooves,  so  rifling  was  probably  con- 
sidered an  aid  in  overcoming  the  difficulties  of  fouling  caused  by 
burnt  powder  and  its  value  in  preserving  the  point  on  flight  of  long 
projectiles  not  recognized  until  later.  The  process  as  applied  to  can- 
non is  a  comparatively  recent  one,  dating  from  about  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century. 

The  Lancaster  guns  of  England,  which  preceded  the  guns  of 
Armstrong,  instead  of  having  a  bore  that  was  round,  made  the  bore 
elliptical  and  twisted  it  to  give  the  rotation  to  the  projectile.  The 
Whitworth  rifling  was  an  hexagonal  bore  twisted,  with  projectiles  to 
fit.  It  was  an  improvement  and  accurate,  but  expensive  to  make. 
Lord  William  Armstrong  was  the  first  to  successfully  apply  the  pres- 
ent system  of  rifling  to  cannon.  Armstrong's  first  gun  was  a  breech 
loader  with  projectiles  made  of  lead.  Lead  proved  too  soft  and  the 
projectiles  were  changed  to  cast  iron  covered  with  lead.  This  not 
giving  satisfaction  they  were  made  of  cast  iron  with  studs  or  projec- 
tions on  them  to  fit  into  the  grooves  of  the  rifling,  but  when  fired 
the  studs  broke  up  and  the  shot  jammed  and  ruined  the  gun. 

Compression  Band.  An  American  later  brought  forward  the 
copper  band  now  used  about  the  base  of  the  projectile  and  success 
was  assured,  for  the  band  answered  two  purposes;  it  made  the  pro- 
jectile slightly  larger  than  the  bore  and  being  of  soft  metal  was  forced 
into  the  grooves  of  the  rifling  and  gave  the  spinning  motion  to  the 
projectile,  while  at  the  same  time  it  made  a  gas-tight  joint  between 
the  projectile  and  the  bore  of  the  gun  and  kept  the  powder  gases 
from  escaping  until  the  projectile  had  left  the  gun.  Rifling  has 


400          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

made  possible  the  use  of  projectiles  with  a  length  five  or  six  times 
their  diameter. 

Evolution  of  the  Metallic  Cartridge.  In  the  flintlock  musket 
a  piece  of  flint  held  in  the  hammer  was  made  to  strike  against  steel 
so  arranged  that  the  resulting  sparks  fell  upon  powder  within  an 
appendage  on  the  outside  of  the  gun  called  the  pan,  and  the  flame 
was  communicated  from  the  pan  to  the  powder  charge  within  the 
bore.  The  device  was  clumsy,  misfires  were  frequent,  and  the  gun 
was  useless  in  storms  of  rain  or  snow.  The  chemist  was  called  to 
the  aid  of  the  soldier  and  showed  him  how  to  get  fire  from  fulminate 
of  mercury,  "  formed  by  the  action  of  a  solution  of  mercury  in  nitric 
acid  on  ordinary  alcohol.  It  consists  of  very  fine  lustrous  gray  crys- 
tals which,  when  dry,  are  extremely  sensitive  to  all  kinds  of  shock 
and  explode  violently  when  struck,  heated,  rubbed,  or  pressed  be- 
tween hard  surfaces."  It  was  known  to  chemists  long  ago,  but  it 
remained  for  Bayen,  army  physician  to  Louis  XV.,  to  make  known 
in  1774  its  explosive  qualities.  Inventors  at  once  began  to  experi- 
ment with  it.  Colonel  Pauly  of  the  French  army  in  1808  produced 
a  cartridge  containing  the  fulminate  of  mercury  for  its  ignition.  By 
1818  the  metal  cap  had  been  perfected.  Percussion  locks  soon  came 
into  use  and  the  piece  of  flint  was  discarded. 

Cartridges  were  probably  invented  by  the  French,  who  wrapped 
the  bullet  and  powder  in  a  piece  of  paper  and  dispensed  with  the 
cumbersome  powderhorn,  leaving  the  cartridge  to  be  ignited  by  per- 
cussion. In  1836  Lefrancheux,  a  French  inventor,  perfected  a  car- 
tridge containing  the  bullet  and  the  powder  charge  inclosed  within  a 
paper  shell.  The  base  of  the  shell  was  of  metal  inclosing  a  cap,  and 
a  small  brass  rod  ran  from  the  cap  to  the  hammer  of  the  gun.  The 
rod,  struck  by  the  hammer,  exploded  the  cap,  which  ignited  the 
powder  charge.  By  1853  Flobert  had  perfected  the  small  breech  cap 
which  bears  his  name,  and  a  little  later  an  Englishman,  Ely,  improved 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  40 1 

upon  the  cap  by  filling  it  with  gunpowder;  but  it  was  left  for  the 
Americans  to  bring  the  metallic  cartridge  to  its  present  high  state  of 
perfection. 

The  Smith  and  Wesson  Company,  the  manufacturers  of  the  fa- 
mous revolvers  of  that  name,  patented  in  1854  the  first  central  fire 
metallic  cartridge  containing  the  cap,  the  powder  charge,  and  the 
lubricated  bullet.  This  was  used  in  their  revolvers  and  was  soon 
made  applicable  to  all  small  arms.  Prior  to  the  metallic  case  the 
leakage  of  gas  in  breech-loading  small  arms  had  been  a  serious  defect, 
but  the  metallic  cartridge  shell  made  the  best  kind  of  a  gas  check 
and  overcame  the  difficulty.  The  process  has  grown  until  fixed  am- 
munition is  made  for  rapid  fire  cannon  as  large  as  the  6-inch  gun 
with  its  hundred  pounds  projectile.  In  fact  it  made  possible  the 
rapid  fire  cannon  and  the  machine  gun,  without  which  the  battleship 
would  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  torpedo  boat. 

"  Prior  to  the  Civil  War  all  inventive  thought  was  concentrated 
on  the  gun  as  the  primary  factor.  But  when  the  center-fire  metallic 
cartridge  was  developed  —  presto !  Science  had  put  on  its  seven 
leagued  boots.  The  change  to  the  breechloader  took  place  at  a 
bound." 

Importance  of  the  Cartridge.  "  The  ordinary  notion  is  that 
powder  and  ball  are  mere  accessories  to  the  gun ;  that  the  gun  is  the 
all-important  and  substantive  thing,  while  the  cartridge  is  a  minor  in- 
cident. So  all-prevailing  has  this  idea  been  in  times  past  that  even 
the  most  expert  have  not  only  been  influenced  by  it,  but  sometimes 
governed  by  it.  The  truth  is  the  opposite.  The  cartridge  is  primary 
and  antecedent,  the  gun  secondary  and  consequent."  * 

The  Evolution  of  the  Rifle.  In  primitive  times  the  weaker  man 
must  have  shunned  encounter  at  close  quarters  with  a  stronger  an- 


*  Historical  Sketch  of  the  Ordnance  Department,  U.  S.  A.,  Major  C.  E.  Dutton, 
U.  S.  A. 


402          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

tagonist,  and  if  "  necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention,"  the  need  of 
something  to  equalize  his  powers  stimulated  him  to  develop  weapons 
that  would  kill  at  a  distance.  As  his  mechanical  ingenuity  developed 
he  passed  from  throwing  stones  and  clubs  to  the  spear  and  the  sling, 
and  the  bow  and  cross  bow  may  not  improperly  be  styled  the  early 
ancestors  of  the  modern  rifle. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  at  a  match  held  in  England  in  1792 
between  the  long  bow  and  the  flintlock  musket  of  the  day,  the  long 
bow  carried  off  the  honors  for  accuracy  at  100  yards.  During  the 
American  Revolution  it  was  once  seriously  proposed  to  arm  part  of 
the  soldiers  with  bows  and  arrows  because  they  were  cheaper  than 
muskets,  could  throw  projectiles  faster,  and  were  nearly  as  accurate. 

The  "  Brown  Bess  "  was  a  famous  flintlock  musket  introduced 
by  William  of  Orange  into  the  English  army  and  used  for  a  century 
and  a  half.  With  it  Wellington  won  his  victories  and  the  British 
troops  were  armed  with  it  until  after  the  accession  of  Queen  Victoria 
to  the  throne.  It  must  have  required  a  man  of  some  courage  to  fire 
it  without  flinching,  for  the  bullet  was  ^  of  an  inch  in  diameter, 
weighed  more  than  an  ounce,  and  the  charge  was  four  and  a  half 
drams  of  powder.  The  cumbersome  flintlock  with  which  it  was 
equipped  allowed  the  priming  powder  within  the  pan  to  get  wet, 
which  rendered  the  gun  useless  in  rain  storms.  Hence  we  see  the 
peculiar  aptness  of  Cromwell's  famous  injunction,  "  Trust  in  God  but 
keep  your  powder  dry."  Further,  it  was  some  time  after  the  trigger 
was  pulled  before  the  powder  charge  exploded  and  that  rendered  ac- 
curate holding  and  shooting  difficult.  Small  wonder  that  officers  ex- 
horted their  men  to  wait  until  they  could  see  the  whites  of  the  eyes 
of  their  opponents  before  firing.  Probably  the  old  musket  had  a 
penetration  of  two  or  three  inches  of  wood,  and  in  those  days  a  rail 
fence  or  a  haycock  made  a  breastwork  not  to  be  despised,  while  an 
antagonist  at  200  yards  distance  was  comparatively  safe.  With  the 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  403 

musket  about  one  shot  a  minute  could  be  fired  and  the  necessary  ac- 
companiment of  a  soldier  was  a  powderhorn,  a  bullet  pouch,  a  ram- 
rod, some  wadding,  and  a  piece  of  flint.  The  powder  had  to  be 
turned  into  the  gun,  the  bullet  and  wadding  rammed  down,  the 
cover  of  the  pan  lifted,  priming  powder  poured  in,  the  trigger  pulled, 
and  the  gun  held  on  the  .mark  until  the  charge  exploded.  In  wet, 
drizzly  weather  the  gun  was  useless  as  a  firearm  and  became  simply 
a  "  good  handle  to  a  bayonet."  Indeed  the  bayonet  was  a  weapon 
largely  relied  upon  in  those  days. 

To-day,  the  powderhorn,  the  bullet  pouch,  and  the  flintlock 
hang  on  the  wall  as  curios  or  are  found  only  in  museums,  preserved 
as  mementos  of  the  past.  The  modern  soldier  has  a  breech-loading 
magazine  rifle  that  can  kill  a  man  at  two  and  a  half  miles.  The  piece 
of  flint  has  given  place  to  a  few  grains  of  fulminate  of  mercury  in  a 
brass  shell  containing  both  the  powder  charge  and  the  bullet.  His 
ammunition  may  be  soaked  in  water  without  affecting  its  efficiency 
and  can  be  used  in  all  kinds  of  weather.  He  is  able  to  fire  his  rifle 
so  rapidly  that  he  cannot  carry  ammunition  enough  to  last  him  an 
hour,  and  instead  of  two  or  three  inches  of  wood  affording  protec- 
tion to  an  enemy  an  ordinary  tree  in  the  forest  is  unable  to  do  so, 
for  his  gun  has  a  penetration  of  from  30  inches  to  60  inches  of 
wood.  Bayonet  charges  in  massed  bodies  are  figures  of  speech  or 
figments  of  the  imagination.  To  attempt  one  would  be  suicide. 
The  extreme  range  and  great  accuracy  of  the  gun  are  fast  turning 
the  bayonet  into  a  trowel  for  intrenching  purposes.  The  new  rifle 
has  rendered  a  change  in  battle  formations  necessary.  British 
grenadiers  have  been  known  to  charge  in  such  perfect  alignment  that 
a  cannon  ball  has  knocked  the  muskets  out  of  the  hands  of  nearly  a 
whole  file..  To-day  such  tactics  would  be  simply  murder,  and 
charges  are  made  in  short  rushes,  a  few  men  at  a  time  springing  up, 
running  a  few  yards  and  throwing  themselves  flat  on  the  ground  to 
escape  the  deadly  fire. 


404         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

Smokeless  powder  in  long  range  rifles  has  rendered  it  possible 
for  a  comparatively  small  number  of  good  marksmen  under  cover  to 
inflict  terrible  loss  upon  opponents  forced  to  attack  in  the  open,  as  is 
evidenced  by  the  late  South  African  war.  So  deadly  has  rifle  fire  be- 
come that  it  may  cause  the  adoption  of  bullet  proof  shields  large 
enough  to  afford  protection  for  a  man's  head  and  shoulders  when 
lying  prone.  Such  shields  of  steel  plates  an  eighth  of  an  inch  thick 
have  already  been  made  in  England  for  the  Japanese  navy. 

The  modern  rifle  has  come  up  step  by  step  until  it  is  a  weapon 
of  extreme  precision,  for  chance  has  been  eliminated  until  it  now 
plays  but  a  small  part ;  and  what  is  progress  but  the  elimination  of 
chance? 

The  limits  of  this  article  will  allow  only  a  brief  mention  of  the 
most  prominent  types  in  the  development  of  modern  small  arms. 
Firearms  were  regularly  introduced  and  issued  to  the  English  army 
in  1471,  and  for  centuries  the  smooth  bore  was  preferred  to  the  rifle 
because,  although  not  so  accurate,  it  could  be  more  readily  loaded, 
for  it  was  difficult  to  drive  down  a  close  fitting  round  ball  in  a  rifle 
after  it  had  been  fired  a  few  times  without  cleaning.  Napoleon  en- 
deavored to  improve  the  musket  and  detailed  Colonel  Pauly  for  that 
purpose,  who  in  1812  designed  a  breechloader  with  the  swinging 
block.  This  was  pronounced  too  complicated.  Dreyser,  who  had 
worked  in  Colonel  Pauly's  shop,  brought  out  in  1836  a  gun  which 
had  a  bolt  driven  by  a  spiral  spring  in  place  of  a  hammer.  From  it 
the  Prussian  needle  gun  was  evolved  and  the  needle  gun  was  the  par- 
ent of  the  bolt  guns  of  to-day. 

Eli  Whitney,  the  inventor  of  the  cotton  gin,  in  1798  began 
the  manufacture  of  muskets  for  the  United  States.  He  undertook 
the  work  at  the  special  request  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  secretary  of 
state  of  Washington's  cabinet.  The  improvements  he  made  in  con- 
nection with  that  work  have  perhaps  been  as  beneficial  to  mankind 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  405 

as  his  more  famous  invention.  It  was  he  that  devised  the  system  of 
hardened  patterns,  called  jigs  and  templets,  by  which  cutting  tools 
are  guided  to  make  all  pieces  of  work  alike.  It  is  by  means  of  this 
system  that  the  parts  of  all  high  grade  machines  are  made  inter- 
changeable. "  In  presenting  his  views  to  Mr.  Jefferson  in  reference 
to  the  feasibility  of  making  all  arms  interchangeable,  Mr.  Whitney 
met  with  the  most  violent  opposition,  both  English  and  French 
ordnance  officers  ridiculing  the  idea  as  an  impossibility,  and  claiming 
that  each  arm  would  be  a  model  and  would  cost,  at  least,  one  hun- 
dred dollars."  Whitney  proved  his  system  practicable.  "  The  Eng- 
lish War  Department  was  forced  to  adopt  the  same  system,  and  put 
it  to  practical  use  in  1855  by  importing  a  large  amount  of  American 
machinery.  Since  that  date  other  European  governments  have 
adopted  the  same  general  system,  which  is  made  specially  necessary 
in  the  proper  manufacture  of  breech-loading  small  arms.  The  ad- 
mirable series  of  inventions  used  in  this  system  of  Mr.  Whitney's 
remains  now,  like  the  cotton  gin,  the  same  as  when  first  invented, 
no  practical  change  taking  place  in  eighty  years,  notwithstanding  the 
inventive  genius  which  has  been  at  work  during  that  period  of  time. 
No  patents  have  ever  been  taken  out  for  the  Whitney  inventions,  but 
they  have  been  freely  given  to  the  public,  and  have  saved  the  United 
States  government  large  sums  of  money  by  lessening  the  cost,  and 
perfecting  the  manufacture  and  repairs  of  firearms."  * 

The  Springfield  Arsenal  was  opened  in  1800,  Whitney's  sys- 
tem established,  and  the  manufacture  of  the  Springfield  musket  com- 
menced, modeled  after  the  French  Charville  flintlock.  In  fact, 
until  the  needle  gun  came  out  French  models  in  firearms  were 
everywhere  pretty  generally  followed. 

In  1811  the  United  States  issued  a  patent  to  John  H.  Hall  of 
North  Yarmouth  for  a  breech-loading  rifle,  and  in  1816  one  hundred 

*"  American  Inventions."     General  Norton. 

- 


406  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

of  these  were  made  and  issued  to  the  army.  This  is  worthy  of  note 
as  being  the  first  breech-loading  rifle  issued  to  any  military  body. 
It  was  used  with  great  success  in  the  Black  Hawk  and  Seminole 
wars,  and  one  special  and  significant  advantage  claimed  for  it  was 
that  the  parts  were  interchangeable.  This  seems  to  have  stimulated 
American  inventors,  for  prior  to  1860  more  than  two  hundred  patents 
had  been  granted  for  breech-loading  small  arms,  and,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  needle  gun,  good  authorities  have  claimed  that  every  arm 
of  a  breech-loading  system  used  in  Europe  is  of  American  origin, 
many  being  of  American  manufacture.  Indeed,  in  1878,  Mr.  James 
Lee,  an  American  inventor,  submitted  to  an  army  board  a  plan  for  a 
solid  or  detachable  magazine  underneath  the  receiver  of  the  gun. 
Prior  to  this  all  magazine  guns  had  carried  the  cartridges  under  the 
barrel  or  in  the  stock.  Mr.  Lee's  gun  was  in  so  crude  a  state  that  it 
could  not  be  tested  at  that  meeting,  but  made  a  favorable  impres- 
sion. It  was  patented  in  the  United  States  and  Europe.  The  idea 
found  favor  in  187.9  Abroad  ancj  ^  jlas  come  back  to  us  under  such 
foreign  titles  as  Mauser,  Mannlicher,  Krag-Jorgensen,  etc. 

The  Minie  Ball.  Between  1840  and  1850  Captain  Minie  in- 
vented the  bullet  of  that  name.  It  consisted  of  a  hollow  base  with 
an  iron  cap  which,  being  driven  in  by  the  force  of  the  explosion,  ex- 
panded the  base  of  the  bullet  and  made  it  fit  the  rifling.  The  Brit- 
ish government  paid  him  ,£20,000  for  his  invention  and  rifles 
became  pretty  generally  adopted  as  military  arms. 

In  1853  the  Enfield  Rifle  appeared  in  England.  It  was  a  com- 
posite gun  embodying  the  good  points  of  all  submitted  by  the  com- 
petitors who  had  hoped  to  have  their  models  adopted.  It  was  fairly 
accurate  up  to  600  yards,  which  at  that  time  was  considered  a  very 
long  range.  This  gun  is  especially  interesting  because  when  issued 
to  the  native  troops  of  India  it  caused  the  mutiny  of  1857-  The 
ball  and  powder  being  inclosed  in  a  greased  paper  the  natives  were 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  407 

led  to  believe  that  the  lubricant  was  made  from  cows'  and  pigs' 
grease  for  the  especial  purpose  of  defiling  all  good  Hindoos  and 
Mohammedans.  "The  Hindoo  regards  the  cow  with  religious  ven- 
eration, and  the  Mohammedan  looks  upon  the  hog  with  utter  loath- 
ing. In  the  mind  of  the  former,  something  sacred  to  him  was  pro- 
faned;  in  that  of  the  latter,  something  unclean  and  abominable  was 
forced  upon  him." 

In  1842  Prussia  adopted  an  improvement  of  Dreyser's  gun  and  it 
afterward  became  famous  as  the  Prussian  needle  gun,  and  it  is 
popularly  credited  with  having  been  largely  responsible  for  the  suc- 
cess of  Germany  in  her  war  with  Napoleon  III.  In  this  model  the 
hammer  was  discarded  and  a  bolt  resembling  an  ordinary  door  bolt 
with  a  needle-like  projection  took  its  place.  The  bolt  closed  the 
breech  of  the  gun  and  was  actuated  by  a  heavy  coil  spring.  The 
cartridge  was  made  of  strong  paper  and  contained  the  powder  charge 
and  bullet.  At  the  base  of  the  bullet  was  a  patch  of  detonating 
powder.  When  the  bolt  was  drawn  back  it  compressed  the  coil 
spring.  When  the  trigger  was  pressed  the  bolt  propelled  by  the 
spring  shot  forward,  driving  the  needle  through  the  charge  of 
powder  and  striking  the  fulminate  at  the  base  of  the  bullet,  which  in 
turn  ignited  the  powder  charge.  The  bolt  guns  of  the  present  are 
improvements  of  the  needle  gun. 

In  the  Franco-German  War  of  1870  the  Prussian  needle  gun 
was  opposed  to  the  French  chassepot.  A  special  interest  is  at- 
tached to  the  latter  for  it  has  been  charged  that  Napoleon  III.  made 
a  mistake  in  selecting  it  as  a  national  arm  and  that  its  defects  were  in 
a  large  measure  responsible  for  his  defeat  and  downfall.  It  was  a 
bolt  gun  with  a  bullet  weighing  380  grains,  propelled  by  85  grains  of 
powder.  It  had  an  extreme  range  of  1800  yards,  which  may  have 
been  the  reason  why  it  was  selected,  but  even  at  TOO  yards  it  was  in- 
ferior to  the  Prussian  needle  gun  in  accuracy.  In  the  face  of  the 


408          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

successful  use  of  metallic  cartridges  in  the  American  Civil  War,  the 
cartridge  employed  by  Napoleon  was  a  weak  paper  one  and  when 
pushed  into  place  by  the  bolt  the  walls  frequently  broke  up  and  the 
cartridge  exploded  prematurely.  No  lubrication  was  provided  for 
the  bullet  and  after  firing  a  few  rounds  it  was  often  difficult  to  get  a 
new  cartridge  into  place. 

In  England,  Sir  Joseph  Whitworth  applied  his  peculiar  style  of  a 
six-sided  projectile  fitting  in  a  bore  of  the  same  shape  to  small  arms. 
At  the  first  meeting  of  the  "  National  Rifling  Association,"  July  i, 
1860,  Queen  'Victoria  opened  the  tournament  with  a  shot  at  400 
yards  from  a  Whitworth  rifle,  resulting  in  a  bull's  eye  within  an  inch 
and  a  half  of  the  center.  The  rifle  was  considered  accurate  but  too 
expensive. 

The  American  Civil  War  strained  the  resources  of  the  North  to 
the  fullest  extent,  and  never  before  had  a  large  army  such  a  curious 
medley  of  weapons,  and  the  confusion  arising  from  the  use  of  so 
many  kinds  of  ammunition  was  serious  enough.  At  the  close  of  the 
war  there  were  over  twenty  different  kinds  in  service. 

The  Sharps  rifle  was  one  of  the  best  and  100,000  of  them  were 
used.  It  was  invented  in  1848  by  Christian  Sharps,  was  improved, 
until,  about  1857,  it  appeared  as  about  the  first  practical  breech- 
loading  rifle.  It  was  used  in  the  Kansas  struggle,  where  it  was  highly 
esteemed  for  the  rapidity  and  accuracy  of  its  fire.  From  it  eight  or 
ten  shots  per  minute  could  be  fired,  making  a  regiment  armed  with 
it  equivalent  to  two  or  three  times  their  number  armed  with  muzzle 
loading  guns.  It  was  a  single  loader. 

The  Spencer,  patented  in  1860,  appears  to  have  been  about  the 
first  successful  magazine  gun.  The  stock  was  hollow  and  contained 
a  tube  running  from  the  butt  plate  to  the  lock  mechanism.  This 
magazine  would  hold  nine  cartridges,  and  a  spiral  spring  at  the  butt 
forced  them  one  at  a  time  up  to  the  lock  mechanism  as  needed.  The 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  409 

bullet  was  half  an  inch  in  diameter  and  weighed  an  ounce.  The  arm 
could  be  fired  seven  times  in  ten  seconds  and  was  used  with  great 
success  in  the  Civil  War.  It  was  considered  that  men  armed  with  it 
were  equal  to  five  or  six  times  their  number  armed  with  muzzle 
loaders.  When  first  used  in  battle  it  aroused  great  interest,  the 
Confederates  saying  in  joke  that  the  Federals  loaded  all  day  Sunday 
and  fired  the  rest  of  the  week. 

The  Springfield  rifle,  adopted  by  the  United  States  after  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War,  was  several  times  improved  until  its  manufacture 
was  discontinued  in  1892  upon  the  adoption  of  the  Krag-Jorgensen. 
It  is  a  single  shot  breech  loader  with  a  caliber  of  .45,  an  extreme 
range  of  3500  yards  and  a  velocity  of  1300  feet  with  a  512  grain  lead 
bullet.  Thirty-four  shots  can  be  fired  with  it  in  two  minutes.  The 
objection  to  the  gun  is  its  heavy  recoil  and  high  trajectory,  making 
the  "  danger  zone"  shorter,  but  beyond  a  thousand  yards  it  has  a 
striking  force  greater  than  any  of  the  high  velocity  small  bores,  and 
at  that  range  the  wounds  inflicted  by  it  are  more  severe.  Fitted 
with  a  smokeless  cartridge  it  has  been  used  in  the  Philippines  and 
there  preferred  by  some  officers  to  the  Krag. 

The  Krag-Jorgensen  rifle  was  invented  by  Colonel  Krag,  chief  of 
ordnance  of  Norway.  The  United  States  pays  him  a  royalty  of 
$1.00  on  each  gun.  This  is  a  5-shot  magazine  gun  of  .30  caliber; 
weight  of  bullet,  220  grains;  powder,  40  grains;  extreme  range, 
4000  yards;  muzzle  velocity,  3000  feet.  The  bullet  is  a  steel  shell 
filled  with  lead  to  give  it  weight.  The  gun  is  accurate  and  can  be 
used  as  a  single  loader,  holding  in  reserve,  for  an  emergency,  the  five 
shots  in  the  magazine.  The  wounds  made  at  short  range  by  all  small 
caliber  guns  of  high  velocity  are  frightful.  As  the  range  increases 
and  the  bullet  loses  its  velocity  the  wound  becomes  a  small  clean 
puncture. 

To-day  all  the  armies  of  the  great  powers  are    equipped  with 


410  THE    MARVELS   OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

small  bore  high  velocity  rifles.  There  has  been  a  steady  decrease  in 
caliber  from  the  .75  Brown  Bess  musket  to  the  .70  Minie,  .57  En- 
field,  .50  Spencer,  .45  Springfield,  .303  Lee-Metford,  .30  Krag,  .275 
Mauser,  .236  Lee  Navy.  The  latter  caliber  is  too  small  and  the 
United  States  navy  has  adopted  the  one  used  by  the  army. 

The  grooves  of  the  early  rifle  had  only  a  slight  twist  and  the 
large  caliber  bullets  were  made  of  lead  hardened  with  tin  or  anti- 
mony. With  the  introduction  of  more  powerful  charges  and  increased 
velocity  it  was  necessary  to  increase  the  fwist  from  the  one  turn  in 
22  inches  of  the  Springfield,  to  the  one  turn  in  10  inches  of  the  Krag, 
to  preserve  the  end  on  flight  of  the  bullet.  It  then  became  necessary 
to  cover  the  bullet  with  a  metal  stronger  than  lead  to  hold  to  the 
rifling  and  now  a  thimble-like  shell  of  cupro-nickeled  steel  is  pretty 
generally  used  with  the  inside  filled  with  lead  to  give  it  the  required 
weight.  The  rifles  of  the  different  nations  are  so  equally  matched 


THE    K  RAG-JORGENSEN    U .    S.    RlFLE   CONTRASTED    WITH    OLD    FLINT    LOCK. 

that  any  decided  improvement  in  the  cartridge  of  one  might  easily 
render  that  weapon  superior  in  range,  penetration,  velocity,-  and  ac- 
curacy to  all  the  others.  Any  of  them  will  penetrate,  at  a  short  dis- 
tance from  the  muzzle,  from  40  to  60  inches  of  pine  boards  and  from 
one  half  inch  to  an  inch  of  wrought  iron.  Although  very  accurate 
shooting  cannot  be  expected  of  any  of  them  beyond  1000  yards, 


THE    I7TH   CENTURY. 


THREE  BARRELED    ITALIAN    FLINTLOCK    REVOLVER    LOADED  WITH   LOOSE   POWDER 

AND   BALL. 

This  weapon  had  to  be  primed  each  time  it  was  fired  and  the  barrels  turned  by  hand.      It  was  unserviceable 
in  wet  weather  and  had  an  effective,  although  not  accurate,  range  of  about  50  yards. 


THE   20TH   CENTURY. 


THE   LATEST  MILITARY  REVOLVER  OF  THE   SMITH  AND   WESSON   COMPANY. 

This  weapon  uses  fixed  ammunition,  can  be  fired  faster  than  a  shot  a  second,  and  is  effective  and  accurate  at  a 
greater  distance  than  were  the  muskets  with  which  Wellington  defeated  Napoleon. 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE. 


411 


most  of  them  have  an  extreme  range  of  at  least  two  miles,  with  suf- 
ficient remaining  energy  to  kill  at  that  distance. 

The  following  table  shows  the  rifles  used  by  the  principal  powers 
of  the  world.  They  are  all  bolt  guns  using  bullets  covered  with  a 
metal  patch  ranging  in  hardness  from  copper  to  steel:  — 


Cartridges 

Country 

Name  of  Gun 

Caliber 

in 

Sighted 

Muzzle 

Magazine 

to 

Velocity 

Austria-  Hungary 

Mannlicher 

315 

5 

2133 

2II5 

Belgium 

Mauser 

3OI 

5 

2190 

I968 

Canada 

Lee-Enfield 

3°3 

10 

2900 

22OO 

China 

Lee 

303 

22OO 

24OO 

Chili 

Mauser 

276 

5 

2400 

2285 

France 

Lebel 

3'5 

8 

2l87 

2I9O 

Germany 

Mauser 

3" 

5 

2242 

2IOO 

Great  Britain 

Lee-Metford 

3°3 

10 

2900 

2200 

Italy 

Carcano 

256 

6 

2IOO 

2320 

Japan 

Muratta 

3i5 

8 

2800 

I9OO 

Mexico 

Mo  n  dragon 

256 

8 

2603 

2362 

Russia 

Mannlicher 

299 

5 

2500 

Spain 

Mauser 

276 

5 

22OO 

2285 

Turkey 

Mauser 

301 

5 

2190 

I968 

United  States 

Krag-Jorgensen 

300 

5 

2200 

2300 

Although  the  first  practical  working  revolver  was  invented  and 
brought  out  within  the  memory  of  men  now  living,  the  idea  itself 
is  half  a  thousand  years  old.  A  cut  is  shown  of  an  Italian  revolver 
of  the  seventeenth  century  and  revolving  firearms  are  even  centuries 
older  than  this.  The  pistol  shown  in  the  cut  has  three  barrels  turn- 
ing about  a  central  pivot.  The  barrels  were  turned  by  hand  and  a 
spring  catch  held  them  in  the  proper  position  for  firing.  The  ap- 
plication of  the  idea  appeared  toward  the  close  of  the  fourteenth 
century  and  was  so  much  in  advance  of  its  time  that  it  had  to  wait 
five  centuries  for  the  metallic  cartridge  to  be  invented  to  complete 
its  efficiency. 

It  remained  for  a  Connecticut  Yankee,  Colonel  Samuel  Colt,  to 
make  his  name  a  household  word  and  bring  out  in  1835  the 


4I2 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


practicable  revolver  that  could  be  used,  having  a  cylinder  that 
revolved  when  the  hammer  was  drawn  back.  In  the  first  Colt 
revolver  the  six  chambers  were  bored  nearly  through 
the  cylinder,  nipples  for  percussion  caps  screwed  in, 
and  the  chamber  loaded  with  powder  and  ball.  So 
popular  was  the  arm  that  in  ten  years  from  Janu- 
ar)',  1856,  more  than  half  a  million  had  been  sold. 
11  Mr.  Samuel  Colt,  on  August  2,  1830,  shipped  as 
a  sailor  on  the  ship  Carlo  from  Boston  to  Calcutta, 
and  on  this  trip  made  the  first  model  of  his  revolv- 
ing pistol."  His  English  patent  was  issued  De- 
cember 8,  1835,  and  his  United  States  patent  Feb- 
ruary 25,  1836.  The  first  revolver,  called  the 
"  Texas  "  pistol,  was  a  .34  caliber  with  a  concealed 
trigger,  and  so  popular  in  Texas  and  Mexico  that 
they  were  often  sold  for  $100  each. 

The  chambers  of  the  Colt  revolver,  as 
remarked,  were  not  bored  entirely  through 
the  cylinder,  and  it  took  the  inventive  genius 
of  the  age  another  twenty  years  to  remove 
the    last    quarter    inch    of    metal. 
Rollin  White  finally  accomplished 
this  and  to  him  a  patent  was  issued 
April  3,  1855,  for  a  cylinder  open 
from  end  to  end.      White  had  in- 
tended to  load  each  chamber  with 
powder  and  ball,    close    the    rear 
end  with  a  wad   having  a  hole   in 
its  center   for  the  fire  from  a  per- 
COLT'S  FIRST  REVOLVER.  cussion  cap  fixed  on    the  frame  to 

pass  through  and  ignite  the  powder  charge.      The  said   fire  had  an 


MILITARY   ART  AND    SCIENCE.  413 

inconvenient  way  of  passing  to  more  than  one  chamber  at  once  and 
his  plan  was  not  a  success.  Smith  and  Wesson  secured  his  patent 
and  in  1860  produced  the  first  practicable  metallic  cartridge  revolver 
ever  made.  Their  revolvers  are  unexcelled  in  accuracy,  quality  of 
material  used,  and  beauty  of  finish. 

The  Smith  and  Wesson  and  the  Colt  revolvers  are  easily  the  best 
in  the  world.  The  larger  models  of  either  of  these  will  in  the  hands 
of  an  expert  make  a  better  target  at  200  yards  than  the  Springfield 
rifle  in  the  hands  of  the  average  militiaman.  Many  difficult  mechan- 
ical problems  are  encountered  in  the  manufacture  of  the  revolver,  for 
the  joint  between  the  cylinder  and  the  barrel  can  never  be  made  gas- 
tight,  and  it  is  difficult  to  always  bring  the  chamber  of  the  cylinder 
into  perfect  alignment  with  the  bore,  at  the  moment  of  firing.  Al- 
though the  principle  on  which  the  revolver  is  built  is  thus  defective, 
it  is  surprising  to  see  how  closely  mechanical  ingenuity  has  ap- 
proximated the  ideal  and  produced  a  weapon  that  is  deservedly  pop- 
ular. 

Automatic  Pistols.  The  automatic  pistol  made  its  appearance 
not  long  after  the  automatic  machine  gun.  The  first  were  the 
Mannlicher  and  the  Mauser,  each  patented  in  the  United  States  in 
1897.  These  have  the  magazine  underneath  the  barrel,  in  front  of 
the  trigger.  They  use  smokeless  powder  and  metal  jacketed  bullets, 
have  a  high  velocity  and  great  penetration  with  an  extreme  range  of 
more  than  half  a  mile.  The  gas  pressure  at  each  discharge  furnishes 
the  power  to  eject  the  shell,  reload  the  weapon,  and  cock  the  piece 
ready  for  another  shot.  The  heavy  trigger  pull,  which  seems  a  nec- 
essary accompaniment  of  these  pistols,  is  not  conducive  to  extreme 
accuracy;  they  are  essentially  military  arms  and  have  not  the  ex- 
treme accuracy  of  target  pistols  and  revolvers.  They  are  widely  used 
by  officers  of  the  German  army  and  to  some  extent  by  those  of  the 
British. 


414          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

The  automatic  Colt  pistol,  a  later  pistol  of  American  invention, 
is  of  the  Browning  patent,  manufactured  in  France  by  a  French  com- 

*» 

pany  and  in  America  by  the  Colt  Patent  Fire  Arms  Manufacturing 
Company  of  Hartford,  Connecticut.  This  weapon  is  made  in  two 
calibers,  .38  and  .32,  using  a  special  rimless  cartridge  with  a  jacketed 
bullet.  In  the  larger  caliber  it  has  a  muzzle  velocity  of  about  1300 
feet  per  second  and  a  penetration  of  about  n  inches  of  pine.  The 
magazine  is  in  the  grip  and  contains  seven  cartridges,  and  the  seven 
can  be  fired  in  if  seconds.  The  arm  is  remarkable  for  its  extreme 


COLT  AUTOMATIC  PISTOL. 

simplicity  and  the  small  number  of  parts,  and 
is  probably  as  accurate  as  the  average  military 
revolver.  To  operate  the  weapon  the  slide 
covering  the  barrel  is  drawn  back  and  a  spring 
returns  it  to  its  former  position.  These  move- 
ments cock  the  weapon  and  insert  a  new 
cartridge.  A  pull  of  the  trigger  releases  the  hammer  and  discharges 
the  piece.  A  slight  portion  of  the  recoil  is  utilized  to  eject  the 
cartridge,  cock  the  piece,  and  load  a  fresh  cartridge  in  position  ready 
for  firing.  Each  discharge  leaves  the  weapon  ready  for  firing  as  long 
as  there  is  a  cartridge  in  the  magazine.  The  pistol  is  provided  with 
safety  devices  that  insure  safety  in  handling.  The  manufacturers 
have  apparently  considered  it  wise  to  fit  it  with  a  fairly  heavy  trigger 
pull  until  the  public  become  accustomed  to  it. 

Evolution  of  the  Modern  Cannon.     The  first  appearance  of  can- 


MILITARY   ART  AND    SCIENCE.  415 

non  is  enveloped  in  the  gloom  of  the  Dark  Ages.  Some  of  the  ear- 
liest cannon  were  made  of  bars  of  iron  held  together  by  hoops,  much 
like  the  staves  of  a  barrel.  All  of  the  earliest  forms  were  crude 
in  the  extreme,  were  not  mounted  on  carriages,  and  were  rolled 
about  like  saw  logs.  When  in  action  the  breech  rested  on  the  ground, 
the  muzzle  was  propped  up  with  blocks.  After  the  application  of 
trunnions  or  arms  to  cannon,  the  date  of  which  is  uncertain,  they 
could  be  mounted  on  wheels,  moved,  and  aimed. 


OLD  CANNON  OF  GORDON'S  BATTERY,  SEVASTOPOL. 

Moors  Introduce  Artillery.  There  is  evidence  to  show  that  the 
Moors  were  the  first  to  introduce  cannon  into  Western  Europe  and 
they  are  said  to  have  been  employed  against  Saragossa,  A.  D.  1118. 
Cannon  were  used  by  Henry  III.  of  England  against  the  Duke  of 
Gloucester  in  1267,  by  the  Spaniards  against  Cordova  in  1280,  and 
the  expense  account  of  Edward  III.  of  England  (born  1312,  died 
1377)  shows  that  cannon  were  used  in  his  wars.  Ferdinand  IV.  of 
Spain  used  cannon  when  he  captured  Gibraltar  in  1309. 

Nelson's  Flagship.  In  few  things  does  the  progress  of  the  cen- 
tury show  more  marked  improvement  than  in  military  arms.  The 
Victory,  Nelson's  flagship,  the  most  famous  of  British  men-of-war, 
carried  thirty  42-pounders  and  32-pounders,  thirty  24-pounders, 


416  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

forty  12-pounders  and  two  short  68-pounder  carronades.  All  these 
guns  were  simple  cast  iron  tubes.  They  were  placed  on  clumsy 
wooden  carriages  mounted  on  low  wooden  wheels  or  trucks.  The 
breech  of  the  gun  was  purposely  left  heavy  and  the  gun  elevated  or 
depressed  by  prying  up  the  breech  with  handspikes  and  putting  a 
wedge-shaped  block  of  wood  under  to  hold  it  in  the  right  place. 
The  same  handspikes  moved  the  entire  carriage  about  to  point  the 
gun  left  or  right.  The  recoil  was  not  controlled,  only  limited,  by  a 
stout  rope  called  a  breeching  running  through  a  ring  in  the  end  of 
the  cannon,  the  ends  being  tied  to  ring  bolts  in  the  ship's  side. 
'Each  time  the  gun  was  fired  it  recoiled  as  far  as  the  breeching  would 
permit,  was  then  loaded  and  by  means  of  tackle  and  handspikes 
shoved  back  into  place  for  another  shot.  Mechanical  progress  had 
not  reached  the  stage  where  it  could  give  a  close  fit  to  the  bore  of 
the  gun  and  the  projectile.  The  latter,  simple,  round,  cast  iron, 
solid  shot,  taken  just  as  they  came  from  the  foundry,  frequently 
fitted  so  loosely  that  if  the  muzzles  of  the  guns  were  depressed  they 
would  fall  out,  and  a  roll  of  the  ship  might  leave  half  the  guns  of  a 
broadside  loaded  only  with  the  powder  charge.  When  fired,  the 
loosely  fitting  shot  went  bounding  from  side  to  side  through  the  bore 
of  the  gun,  and  the  side  by  chance  hit  last  determined  the  direction 
of  its  flight.  The  range  was  so  short  and  the  guns  so  inaccurate 
that  Nelson,  in  1801,  reported  adversely  on  a  plan  to  put  sights  on 
them,  saying,  "  I  hope  we  shall  be  able  to  get  so  close  to  our  enemies 
that  the  shot  cannot  miss  the  object."  Every  operation  was  per- 
formed by  the  simple  and  direct  application  of  manual  labor  and 
fourteen  men  comprised  a  full  gun  crew  for  a  32-pounder.  To-day, 
aided  by  modern  appliances,  twelve  men  will  man  two  1 3-inch  guns 
in  the  turret  of  a  battle  ship  handling  guns  and  carriages  weighing 
180  tons  and  steel  shell  weighing  1 100  pounds. 

"  Constitution's"  Guns.     The  most  powerful  gun  on  the  famous 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  417 

Constitution  was  a  32-pounder,  not  differing  materially  from  those  on 
Nelson's  ship.  It  appears  to  have  cost  about  $375,  which  would  just 
about  pay  for  one  forged  steel  armor-piercing  shell,  weighing  iioo 
pounds  for  a  modern  1 3-inch  rifle.  The  extreme  range  a  century 
ago  was  about  three  miles.  To-day  the  extreme  range  of  the  16- 
inch  rifle  is  over  twenty  miles  and  the  cost  of  firing  it  once  is  $865. 

Even  fifty  years  ago  the  long  68-pounder  was  about  the  best  gun 
and  its  cast  iron  spherical  shot  could  strike  a  blow  at  1000  yards 
equivalent  to  452  tons.  To-day  the  blow  from  the  shell  of  a  16- 
inch  rifle  is  equivalent  to  88,000  tons,  and  a  bursting  charge  may  be 
carried  with  it  sufficient  to  wreck  the  machinery  of  the  stoutest  bat- 
tle ship  afloat.  It  will  be  interesting  to  note  the  principal  steps  in 
military  progress  leading  up  to  this  modern  giant. 

Evolution  of  the  Modern  Gun.  Military  service  owes  a  large 
debt  to  Gribeauval,  chief  of  the  French  artillery  in  1765.  At  that 
period  field  guns  were  so  rude  and  heavy  as  to  now  seem  almost 
worthless.  He  reduced  their  weight  and  made  it  possible  to  move 
them  about ;  among  other  numerous  improvements  he  fitted  the  shot 
to  the  bore  more  accurately,  thus  increasing  the  gun's  range  and 
rendering  it  far  more  effective.  His  system,  adopted  in  1774,  made 
the  French  artillery  of  the  next  generation  superior  to  any  in  the 
world.  Napoleon  himself  was  an  artillery  officer  of  the  Gribeauval 
school. 

Prior  to  1812  hollow  shot  filled  with  an  explosive  to  burst  the 
shell  into  pieces  and  increase  its  destructive  effect  had  been  fired 
only  from  mortars.  These  were  short  guns  throwing  a  shot  high  into 
the  air  with  the  expectation  of  its  falling  upon  or  near  the  target. 
Colonel  Bomford  in  1812  devised  a  long-chambered  gun  by  means  of 
which  shells  were  fired  directly  at  the  object.  This  was  called  a 
"  columbiad."  The  idea  was  not  further  developed  in  America, 
but  General  Paixhans,  a  celebrated  artillerist  of  France,  brought  up 


418          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

in  the  school  of  Napoleon,  carried  the  idea  further,  and  in  1819  per- 
fected it.  Explosive  shells  from  Paixhans  guns  used  at  the  Siege  of 
Antwerp,  1832,  were  effective.  Paixhans  was  an  engineer  of  great 
merit  and  much  in  advance  of  his  time.  He  advocated  the  applica- 
tion of  steam  and  armor  to  battle  ships.  Critics  of  other  nations  rid- 
iculed his  plans  mercilessly,  saying,  "  He  jumps  to  the  conclusion 
that  steam  vessels  having  begun  by  being  servants  to  the  line  of  bat- 
tle ships  will  in  the  end  become  their  masters."  "  His  suggestion  of 
vessels  shielded  with  iron  to  afford  security  against  the  effects  of 
shells  fired  horizontally,  only  shows  that  speculative  theoretical  ideas 
when  exerted  in  pursuit  of  a  favorable  object  may  be  carried  so  far 
as  to  refute  themselves." 

Progress  Arrested.  Paixhans  had  tried  his  guns  on  the  hull  of  an 
old  ship  and  his  own  countrymen  believed  in  him  so  much  that  in  1830 
the  French  had  nine  steamships  armed  in  part  with  Paixhans'  new 
guns.  By  1850  the  gun  had  progressed  as  far  as  the  mechanical  skill 
of  the  age  would  permit.  In  1844  a  1 2-inch  wrought  iron  gun 
burst  on  board  the  United  States  war  ship  Princeton,  killing  the  Secre- 
tary of  State,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  several  others.  The 
material  was  proved  defective,  but  iron  makers  at  that  time  could  not 
produce  wrought  iron  in  large  quantities  that  would  sustain  the  shock 
of  fine  grained  powder.  Rodman  removed  that  difficulty. 

In  the  fifties  Krupp,  the  famous  gun  maker  of  Germany,  and  Lord 
William  Armstrong  of  England,  each  tried  to  make  steel  guns. 
Lord  Armstrong  has  said  that  it  was  only  after  eight  trials  that  he 
was  able  to  find  a  piece  of  steel  weighing  350  pounds  and  6  feet  long 
that  did  not  develop  flaws  when  boring  it  for  a  gun  of  1.88  inches 
caliber.  The  art  of  steel  making  was  at  such  a  low  state  that  he 
was  "  obliged  to  accept  the  fact  that  steel  was  not  yet  ripe  enough 
for  the  process  of  gun  making,  and  was  compelled  to  use  wrought 
iron." 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  419 

Rodman  and  Initial  Tension.  To  General  Rodman  is  due  the 
discovery  of  the  principle  of  initial  tension.  Molten  iron  or  steel  in 
cooling  tends  to  cool  first  on  the  outside  and  leave  hollows  and  flaws 
in  the  center  (see  "  Piping"  under  Steel  Manufacture)  causing  in- 
ternal stresses  within  the  mass.  General  Rodman  conceived  the  idea 
of  casting  the  gun  hollow  and  cooling  it  from  the  inside.  It  worked 
well  and  the  Rodman  cast  iron  gun  was  the  best  of  its  kind  in  the 
world.  There  is  now  in  one  of  the  parks  of  Brooklyn  a  Rodman 
gun  with  a  2O-inch  bore. 

Steel  manufacture  improved  somewhat  with  the  Bessemer  proc- 
ess and  gave  large  masses  of  steel  from  which  guns  with  a  steel  tube 
clasped  by  wrought  iron  bands  were  made.  The  Siemens  Open- 
Hearth  Process  of  steel  making,  giving  yet  larger  ingots,  made  it  pos- 
sible to  use  steel  for  the  whole  gun. 

Our  present  cannon  is  made  upon  the  "  built-up"  principle  and 
consists  of  gigantic  steel  tubes  or  hoops  expanded  by  heat  and 
shrunken  over  each  other.  The  principal  parts  are  the  tube,  a  hol- 
low steel  forging  extending  the  full  length  of  the  bore ;  the  jacket, 
covering  about  two  fifths  of  the  tube ;  the  jacket  hoops,  shrunken 
over  the  jacket ;  and  the  chase  hoops,  shrunken  over  that  part  of  the 
tube  in  front  of  the  jacket. 

Principle  of  Initial  Tension.  This  method  is  an  application  of 
Rodman's  idea  of  initial  tension.  Suppose  a  half  dozen  hoops  were 
placed  one  within  another  and  fitting  closely.  An  expansive  force 
exerted  within  the  inner  hoop  would  burst  it  before  much  stress  fell 
upon  the  next  hoop  and  the  stress  being  delivered  from  one  to  an- 
other successively,  hardly  more  force  would  be  required  to  burst  all 
the  hoops  than  to  burst  any  one.  Suppose  another  arrangement  of 
the  hoops,  by  which  the  inner  hoop  is  clasped  by  the  second  and  the 
second  clasped  tighter  by  the  third,  and  so  on  to  the  outer  one.  The 
expansive  force  then  exerted  within  the  innermost  hoop  must  be  suf- 


420  THE    MARVELS   OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

ficient  to  burst  all  of  them  combined.  The  built-up  gun  is  based  on 
that  principle.  "It  is  generally  conceded  that  no  possible  thickness 
can  enable  a  cylinder  to  bear  a  continual  pressure  from  within  greater 
on  each  square  inch  than  the  tenacity  of  a  square  inch  bar  of  the  same 
material;  that  is  to  say,  if  the  tensile  strength  of  cast  iron  be  12  tons 
per  square  inch,  no  cast  iron  gun,  however  thick,  could  bear  a  charge 
which  would  strain  it  beyond  that  point ;  for  on  the  first  round  the 
interior  layer  would  be  ruptured  before  the  outer  portion  could  come 
into  play,  and  every  succeeding  round  would  tend  to  make  matters 
worse/'* 

The  Steel  in  a  Gun  must  be  of  the  Best  Quality.  In  battle  the 
gun  may  be  hit  by  projectiles ;  in  firing,  the  rifling  will  be  subjected 
to  enormous  stress,  and  the  gases  formed  by  the  exploding  powder 
have  a  destructive  effect  upon  the  steel.  The  United  States  uses 
steel  made  by  the  "  Siemens  Open-Hearth  Process,"  subjected  to  the 
Whitworth  process  of  fluid  compression.  When  the  steel  is  melted 
it  is  poured  into  a  strong  cylinder  and  subjected  to  hydraulic  pres- 
sure, which  squeezes  out  the  gas  or  air  bubbles  within  the  casting 
and  makes  the  metal  much  denser  and  devoid  of  flaws.  Severe  tests 
of  the  metal  are  made,  and  it  must  stand  pressure  of  from  46,000  to 
50,000  pounds  to  the  square  inch,  without  a  permanent  change  in  form. 
In  its  test  for  tensile  strength  it  must  stretch  at  least  15  per  cent,  be- 
fore giving  way  under  a  stress  of  from  70,000  to  100,000  pounds  to 
the  square  inch  depending  upon  the  part  of  the  gun  for  which  the 
steel  is  to  be  used.  The  "tube"  is  cast  solid,  then  bored  and  a 
heavy  steel  shaft  (mandrel)  passed  through  on  which  the  tube  is  sub- 
jected to  hydraulic  pressure  or  hammer  forging  to  enlarge  and  elon- 
gate it.  It  is  then  roughly  finished,  tempered  in  oil, and  sent  to  the 
gun  factory.  Tempering  makes  the  steel  tougher,  adds  to  its  ten- 
sile strength,  and  makes  it  more  elastic  and  harder.  Upon  arriving 

*  Ingersoll  "  Text  Book  of  Ordnance  and  Gunnery." 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE. 


421 


at  the  factory  the  tube  is  put  into  an  enormous  lathe  and  turned  to 
exactly  the  required  diameter,  then  placed  upright  in  a  pit  adjoining 
a  furnace  wherein  the  jacket  is  to  be  heated.  The  jacket  is  carefully 
bored  out  until  its  inner  diameter  is  slightly  smaller  than  the  outer 
diameter  of  the  tube.  It  is  placed  within  a  chamber,  where  it  is 
heated  by  air  blown  through  a  white  hot  furnace  burning  crude  oil. 
It  is  subjected  to  this  for  about  twenty-nine  hours  until  its  tempera- 
ture is  raised  to  about  600  F.  It  is  carefully  measured  to  see  that 
it  is  expanded  enough  to  go  over  the  tube,  seized  by  a  powerful 
crane,  raised,  swung  and  lowered  over  it  at  about  the  rate  of  a  foot 
a  minute  until  it  clasps  the  rear  part  of  the  tube  and  extends  back  of 
it  far  enough  to  form  the  s'crew 
box  which  is  to  contain  the 
breech  mechanism.  When  in 
the  desired  position,  the  interior 
of  the  gun  is  cooled  by  streams 
of  water  circulating  through  the 
bore.  When  thoroughly  cool  it 
is  replaced  in  the  lathe,  the  other 
parts  carefully  turned  to  a  new 
diameter  and  the  other  hoops 
shrunk  on.  Each  process  is  ex- 
pensive and  requires  the  great- 
est care  and  highest  skill. 

The  breech  of  the  gun  is 
closed  by  a  steel  plug  threaded 
and  screwed  in.  The  accompany- 
ing cut  shows  a  Weling  type  of 
breech  mechanism  for  a  1 2-inch 

gun.      The  inner  part  of  the  jacket  that  projects  over  the  rear  of  the 
tube  is  cut  away  into  a  series  of  steps,  as  shown  in  the  illustration, 


BREECH  BLOCK.  CLOSED  AND  OPEN. 


422          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

and  in  all  but  the  deepest  of  these  screws  threads  are  cut.  The 
breech  plug  has  a  corresponding  series  of  steps  and  threads.  There 
are  three  blank  places  in  the  screw  box  and  three  on  the  breech 
plug.  When  the  plug  is  swung  into  position  coinciding  with  the 
bore  of  the  gun,  it  can  be  pushed  directly  into  the  screw  box,  and 
when  given  a  turn  of  one  twelfth  its  diameter,  the  threads  of  each 
step  of  the  breech  plug  interlock  with  the  threads  of  the  next  higher 
step  of  the  screw  box  and  the  breech  is  securely  closed. 

Reference  to  the  cut  shows  the  breech  plug  with  a  round  head 
and  a  dark  ring  separating  it  from  the  threaded  portion.  The  head 
is  a  mushroom-shaped  piece  of  steel  and  is  allowed  a  slight  to-and- 
fro  motion.  The  dark  ring  is  a  pad  composed  of  65  parts  of  asbes- 
tos and  35  parts  of  pure  mutton  tallow.  The  explosion  within  the 
powder  chamber  forces  back  the  steel  mushroom  against  the  pad, 
which  under  pressure  is  forced  out  at  the  sides  and  forms  a  gas-tight 
joint  that  prevents  the  escape  rearward  of  the  gas  from  the  powder 
chamber. 

The  Weling  system  is  an  improvement  over  the  old  styles  that 
cut  away  half  of  the  threaded  portion,  for  it  gives  a  greater  bearing 
surface  and  allows  a  lighter  breech  plug,  easier  to  handle,  requiring 
but  one  twelfth  of  a  turn  to  unlock  and  affording  a  material  gain  in 
rapidity  of  action  of  loading. 

The  earliest  cannons  were  breechloaders,  but  the  system  was 
discarded  because  the  mechanical  art  of  the  age  was  not  equal  to 
producing, a  gas-tight  joint.  The  modern  mechanism  is  the  product 
of  the  last  half  century.  The  gun  is  fired  through  a  vent  in  the 
mushroom  stock,  and  either  a  friction  primer  or  an  electric  firing 
apparatus  can  be  used. 

The  most  Powerful  Gun  in  the  World.  On  April  7,  1900,  at 
the  Watervliet  Arsenal,  a  record  breaking  feat  in  mechanical  engineer- 
ing was  performed  and  the  jacket  shrunk  upon  the  most  powerful 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  423 

gun  in  the  world  and  one  that  is  likely  to  hold  that  record  for  a  long 
time.  The  shrinking  was  a  most  delicate  operation.  The  gun,  with- 
out jacket,  weighed  102,000  pounds,  the  jacket  76,000,  and  the  dif- 
ference between  outside  radius  of  the  gun  itself  and  inside  radius  of 
the  jacket  after  heating  was  only  six  one  hundredths  of  an  inch.  To 
lift  the  34-ton  mass  of  hot  steel  out  of  the  furnace,  swing  it  up  over 
the  gun  and  lower  it  safely  into  position  was  not  an  operation  to  be 
attempted  by  novices.  Any  inequality  in  heating,  an  error  of  the 
merest  fraction  of  an  inch  in  measurement,  or  the  least  variation  of 
alignment  between  the  axis  of  the  hot  jacket  and  the  tube  in  the  pit 
during  the  operation  of  assembling,  would  have  ruined  the  result  of 
months  of  preparation. 

The  1 6-inch  gun  consists  of  a  forged  steel  tube,  49  feet  6  inches 
long,  on  which  are  first  shrunk  what  are  known  as  the  chase  hoops, 
hollow  steel  cylinders  extending  from  the  muzzle  nearly  back  to  the 
trunnions.  Back  of  the  chase  hoops  comes  the  jacket,  on  the  for- 
ward end  of  which  is  placed  the  locking  ring.  Back  of  this  on  the 
jacket  are  placed  the  jacket  hoops.  Thus  the  rear  third  of  the  gun 
is  of  four  thicknesses,  the  middle  of  three,  and  the  muzzle  end  of 
two. 

The  total  weight  of  the  gun  is  126  tons,  its  length  49  feet  6 
inches,  the  diameter  of  the  breech  6  feet  2  inches,  the  bore  16  inches, 
and  the  theoretical  range  20.76  miles.  To  attain  this  range  the 
highest  point  of  its  flight  is  five  miles,  or  as  high  as  any  mountain  in 
the  world.  The  total  weight  of  forgings  for  the  gun  as  received  from 
the  steel  works  was  358,000  pounds.  Finished,  the  gun  weighs 
about  282,000  pounds,  leaving  76,000  pounds  of  steel  removed  from 
different  parts  during  manufacture. 

The  projectile  for  this  gun  is  64  inches  long,  and  requires  a 
powder  charge  of  1060  pounds.  A  pressure  of  36,000  pounds  to 
the  square  inch  is  developed  at  discharge.  The  cost  of  one  round 


424          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

for  the  gun  is  $865.  The  breech  mechanism  of  the  gun  is  beautifully 
simple.  A  few  turns  of  a  crank  just  below  the  breech  on  the  right 
side  does  all  the  work  of  withdrawing  and  swinging  back  the  breech 
block,  which  weighs  not  less  than  a  ton. 

Great  Guns  of  the  World.  It  was  once  planned  to  have  eighteen 
of  these  gigantic  guns  defend  the  entrance  to  New  York  harbor,  but 
the  12-inch  gun  has  been  improved  so  much  that  it  is  probable  this 
monster  gun  will  be  the  only  one  of  its  kind  manufactured.  Other 
nations  have  made  guns  of  larger  caliber  but  not  so  powerful ;  Italy 
one  of  1734  inches,  France  16*^  inches,  England  16^  inches,  but 
in  range,  weight  of  projectile,  and  force  of  the  blow  the  Watervliet 
gun  surpasses  them  all.  The  advocates  of  the  gun  claim  that  no 
ship  afloat  can  stand  the  terrible  crushing  effect  of  one  of  its  pro- 
jectiles, while  their  opponents  say  the  gun  is  too  expensive  and  that 
it  is  extremely  unlikely  that  a  ship  in  motion  could  be  hit  by  it. 

Recoil.  When  in  the  chamber  of  a  cannon  there  is  exploded 
half  a  ton  of  powder  behind  a  projectile  weighing  more  than  twice 
as  much,  the  effect  is  terrific  and  the  backward  pressure  from  it  is  as 
great  as  the  force  that  moves  the  projectile  forward.  If  this  force 
were  not  controlled  in  a  gun  mounted  on  a  ship  it  would  tear  the 
ship  apart  or  drive  the  gun  through  the  deck. 

The  cannon  of  holiday  occasions  with  which  the  boys  are  familiar 
have  projections  or  arms  called  trunnions  on  which  the  guns  rest, 
but  no  trunnions  ever  forged  could  unaided  withstand  the  recoil  from 
a  large  cannon,  and  even  if  the  trunnions  held  they  would  only  tear 
the  deck  out  of  the  ship.  The  1 6-inch  gun  recoils  with  a  force 
sufficient  to  raise  88,000  tons  one  foot,  for  it  throws  a  projectile 
weighing  as  much  as  a  team  of  horses  higher  than  the  highest  moun- 
tain in  the  world  and  twice  as  far  as  from  Albany  to  Troy.  More 
space  can  be  given  to  a  gun  on  land  than  in  the  crowded  turret  of  a 
ship  and  various  means  of  counteracting  the  recoil  that  might  be 


MILITARY   ART  AND    SCIENCE.  425 

serviceable  for  guns  in  forts  would  not  do  on  ships.  This  backward 
motion  of  the  heavy  guns  of  a  ship  is  intended  to  be  stopped  within 
a  distance  not  exceeding  three  times  the  diameter  of  the  gun's  bore. 
The  13-inch  gun,  then,  will  be  allowed  to  recoil  no  more  than  39 
inches.  The  recoil  is  controlled  by  means  of  pistons  working  in 
"recoil  cylinders."  The  13-inch  gun  in  the  cut  has  four  recoil 
cylinders  fastened  to  the  sleeve,  with  piston  rods  fastened  to  the 
rear  of  the  gun.  The  piston  head  is  attached  to  the  piston  rod  and 
is  in  the  front  part  of  the  cylinder  when  the  gun  is  fired.  The  recoil 
cylinders  are  stationary.  When  the  gun  is  fired  it  slides  back  in 
the  sleeve  and  draws  the  piston  rod  and  head  back  through  the 
cylinder.  The  cylinders  are  filled  with  water  for  the  heavy  guns  and 
a  mixture  of  water  and  glycerine  for  the  lighter  ones.  Grooves  are 
cut  in  the  inner  surface  of  the  recoil  cylinder  and  as  the  piston  head 
starts  back  the  water  passes  through  the  grooves,  but  in  the  back 
part  of  the  cylinder  the  grooves  grow  shallower  until  they  disappear, 
the  resistance  to  the  piston  head  becoming  greater  and  greater  until 
the  gun  is  brought  to  a  stop  with  a  recoil  of  only  three  times  its 
caliber.  The  water  in  front  of  the  piston  head  escapes  at  600  pounds 
pressure  through  a  valve  and  a  hydraulic  engine  forces  water  into  the 
cylinder  in  the  rear  of  the  piston  head,  which  drives  it  to  the  front  of 
the  recoil  cylinder  and  returns  the  gun  to  its  former  position  "  in 
battery."  The  number  of  cylinders  and  their  positions  vary  with 
different  guns  but  the  principle  is  the  one  most  often  used  for  the 
large  ones.  Some  guns  recoil  up  an  inclined  path  and  return  by 
force  of  gravity.  Rapid-fire  guns  frequently  use  the  piston  principle 
with  recoil  springs  to  return  the  guns  to  place  instead  of  a  hydraulic 
engine. 

Heavy  guns  used  for  harbor  defense  are  now  mounted  on  disap- 
pearing gun  carriages.  In  the  Buffington-Crozier  carriage  the  gun  is 
held  on  four  long  arms  moved  by  hydraulic  or  pneumatic  machinery. 


426         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


M 

It  is  loaded  beneath  the  level  of  the  parapet  over  which  it  is  raised, 
remains  but  an  instant  to  be  fired,  and  then  disappears  from  sight. 
On  this  carriage  the  12-inch  gun  can  be  pointed  in  a  complete  circle 
in  i^  minutes  and  the  gun  has  been  fired  nine  times  in  fifteen  min- 
utes, aiming  when  depressed,  and  making  a  good  target.  Disappear- 
ing gun  carriages,  mines,  and  heavy  breech-loading  mortars  have 
increased  materially  the  resources  of  the  defense.  The  disappearing 
carriage  is  at  present  receiving  considerable  criticism. 

Modern  mortars  differ  from  breech-loading  rifles  only  in  length. 
They  pass  through  the  same  processes  of  construction,  load  at  the 
breech,  and  are  rifled.  They  fire  explosive  shells  at  a  high  angle. 
The  shell  is  expected  to  describe  a  huge  curve  and  descend  upon 
the  practically  unprotected  deck  of  the  attacking  ship.  The  thick 
armor  of  a  ship  is  carried  on  the  sides  to  withstand  direct  fire;  the 
limited  amount  of  armor  a  ship  can  carry  makes  it  possible  to  give  but 
little  protection  against  vertical  or  "plunging  "  fire. 

The  12-inch  mortars  defend- 
ing the  harbor  of  New  York  (see 
cut)  are  placed  in  pits  beneath 
the  surface  of  the  ground.  Their 
location  is  unknown  to  the  gen- 
eral public  and  there  is  nothing 
visible  at  a  distance  to  indicate 
their  presence.  The  field  de- 
fended is  laid  off  into  a  series  of 
MORTAR  BATTERY  IN  NEW  YORK  HARBOR.  imaginary  squares,  and  the  gun- 
ner in  the  pit  trains  the  mortar  to  bear  upon  any  particular  square  as 
directed.  It  is  not  ne'cessary  that  the  gunner  see  the  enemy;  his 
movements  can  be  directed  from  a  distance  by  telephone.  The  mor- 


MILITARY   ART  AND    SCIENCE.  427 

tar  throws  a  shell  12  inches  in  diameter,  weighing  1000  pounds,  carry- 
ing within  it  a  bursting  charge  of  100  pounds.  They  fire  at  an  angle 
of  from  35°  to  65°  and  have  an  effective  range  of  five  or  six  miles. 
This  half  ton  of  steel  falling  from  the  clouds  would  easily  penetrate 
the  protective  deck  of  any  ship  afloat,  and  even  if  it  didn't  explode 
in  the  magazines  or  machinery  compartments,  would  pass  on  through 
the  bottom  of  the  ship.  N 

With  the  old  style  gun,  the  crew  at  each  discharge  must  get  out 
of  the  way  of  the  recoil,  a  wet  sponge  must  be  run  through  the  guns 
after  each  shot  to  put  out  any  lingering  sparks  of  fire  before  placing 
the  powder  charge,  the  charge  and  the  shot  must  be  rammed  down 
by  hand,  the  gun  run  out  by  tackle  and  handspikes,  pried  about  until 
it  pointed  as  nearly  right  as  they  could  guess,  and  after  all  these 
operations  had  been  performed,  fired  with  a  hot  iron  or  a  match. 
Now,  ammunition  for  rapid-fire  guns  is  put  up  in  metallic  cases  like 
revolver  cartridges,  the  sponge  is  not  required,  the  barrel  of  the  gun 
alone  recoils,  the  sights  have  been  removed  from  the  barrel  and 
placed  on  the  carriage,  and  the  gun  pointer  simply  keeps  his  sights  on 
the  target,  pays  no  attention  to  the  loading  of  the  gun,  and  squeezes 
an  electric  bulb  when  the  gun  is  ready  to  be  fired.  The  new  gun 
fires  twenty  or  thirty  times  as  fast  as  its  old  type. 

The  great  weight  of  breech  mechanism,  powder,  and  projectile 
precludes  making  rapid  firers  of  the  extremely  heavy  guns,  but  the 
reduced  weight  of  smokeless  powder  with  lighter  and  simpler  breech 
mechanism  has  brought  improved  6-inch,  8-inch,  and  Q-inch  guns 
into  this  class.  On  the  Chilian  cruiser  Blanco  Encalada  four  rounds 
were  fired  in  62  seconds  from  an  8-inch  gun  and  the  ammunition 
taken  from  the  magazine  below  the  protective  deck.  In  the  English 
navy  a  crew  at  drill  fired  an  Elswick  8-inch  gun  three  rounds  in  28 
seconds.  On  board  the  Royal  Sovereign  a  13. 5 -inch  gun  was  fired 
seven  rounds  in  twelve  minutes,  making  six  hits  on  a  target  at  a  range 


428          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

of  1600  to  2200  yards,  while  the  ship  was  steaming  at  eight-knot 
speed.  A  similar  gun  on  the  Empress  of  India  fired  four  rounds  in 
six  minutes. 

Range.  The  effective  range  and  the  extreme  range  of  great  guns 
differ  widely.  Guns  on  board  ship  cannot  give  extreme  elevation  of 
more  than  17°  for  the  portholes  are  not  large  and  the  gun  in  its 
recoil  would  strike  the  deck.  The  effective-  range  there  is  about  six 
miles.  On  land  guns  may  be  given  a  greater  elevation  with  nothing 
in  the  way  of  their  recoil,  and  the  6-inch  gun  may  have  a  range  of 
7*4  miles;  the  8-inch,  9  miles;  the  lo-inch,  n  miles;  the  12-inch, 
1 1  2  miles. 


i6-iNCH   RIFLE  MADE  AT  WATERVLIET,  THE  MOST  POWERFUL  GUN  IN  THE  WORLD. 

Compared  with  2o-inch  Rodman  gun  (at  the  right)  and  soo-pound  Parrott  gun  (at  the  left).    Courtesy  of  the 
Scientific  A  merican. 

Several  years  ago,  on  Krupp's  range  at  Essen,  Germany,  a  9.45 
Krupp  gun  with  an  elevation  of  45°  attained  a  range  of  12.42  miles. 
In  its  flight  the  projectile  rose  4.6  miles  above  a  straight  line  and  at 
this  point  the  highest  range  of  mountains  in  America  interposed 
between  the  gun  and  its  target  would  not  have  intercepted  the  flight 
of  the  shot.  At  Shoeburyness,  England,  in  1888,  the  year  of  the 
Queen's  Jubilee,  a  9.2-inch  wire  wound  gun  threw  a  380  pound  pro- 
jectile with  a  muzzle  velocity  of  2360  feet  an  extreme  range  of  12.4 
miles.  It  is  believed  that  the  1 6-inch  rifle  from  the  Watervliet 


MILITARY   ART  AND    SCIENCE.  429 

Arsenal  will  throw  its  2370  pound  projectile  propelled  by  1060  pounds 
of  powder  with  an  initial  velocity  of  2300  feet  a  second,  nearly  21 
miles,  the  projectile  in  its  flight  reaching  a  height  between  5  and  5  ^ 
miles  above  a  straight  line.  Such  shots  are  fired  only  for  experi- 
mental purposes.  With  the  target  in  motion  the  range  must  be 
much  shorter  to  do  effective  work. 

"Large-caliber  Gun  Firing  is  pretty  Expensive  Work.  Accord- 
ing to  recently  published  figures  for  same  a  1 3-inch  gun  firing  an  I  ioo: 
pound  shell  consumes  550  pounds  of  brown  prismatic  powder,  cost- 
ing for  a  single  discharge  $165.  The  common  13-inch  shell  is  said  to 
cost  $i  16.63.  Armor-piercing  projectile  costs  $418.  To  these  items 
must  be  added  cartridge  box,  primers,  freight,  etc. ,  amounting  to  about 
$15,  or  $296.63  for  the  common  shell  discharge  and  $588  for  the  dis- 
charge of  an  armor-piercing  projectile.  As  the  1 3-inch  gun  can  be 
fired  about  twenty-five  times  in  an  hour,  the  work  of  one  gun  for  an 
hour  may  cost  the  government  $15,000.  The  8-inch  gun  costs  about 
$65  for  each  shot;  the  5-inch  rapid-fire  costs  $33  ;  the  6-inch  breech 
loading  shot  costs  about  $40,  $14  being  for  the  powder;  and  each 
round  of  a  Hotchkiss  6-pounder  gun  is  estimated  to  cost  $5.70,  and 
a  i-pounder,  $1.12.  Whitehead  torpedoes  cost  $3100  each." 

When  an  elongated  form  was  substituted  for  a  spherical  one  it 
greatly  increased  the  weight  of  the  projectile.  The  old  32-pounder 
was  a  6-inch  smooth  bore  gun  with  an  energy  not  often  exceeding 
200  tons.  It  would  not  shoot  as  far  or  as  accurately  as  the  rifle  of 
the  modern  soldier.  The  32-pounder  of  to-day  is  a  4-inch  rifle 

0 

cannon  having  a  muzzle  velocity  of  3000  foot-seconds  and  capable  of 
perforating  2%  inches  of  the  best  armor  at  3000  yards.  The  6-inch 
gun,  corresponding  in  caliber  with  the  old  32-pounder,  uses  a  100- 
pound  projectile  having  a  muzzle  velocity  of  2900  foot-seconds  and  a 
muzzle  energy  of  5800  tons,  and  is  capable  of  penetrating  more  than 
four  inches  of  the  best  armor  at  3000  yards.  The  following  table 


430 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


shows  the  elements  of  the  1899  models  of  naval  guns  using  smoke- 
less powder  and  uncapped  armor-piercing  shells  striking  at  right 
angles  to  the  target. 


Calibers  of  Guns 

3-inch 

4-inch 

5-inch 

6-inch 

8-inch 

10-inch 

12-inch 

Length  .  .                         calibers 

CQ 

CQ 

en 

CO 

4  C. 

Weight  tons 

o  87 

2    C.6 

J^ 
7  4 

J« 

?8 

•5-J      A 

C.2 

Weight  of  projectile  .  .  .pounds 
Muzzle  velocity.  .  .foot-seconds 
Muzzle  energy  ....  foot-tons 

H 
3,000 
874 

32 

3,000 

T    QQQ 

60 
2,900 

-7  COT 

TOO 
2,900 

c..8i8 

250 
2,800 

I  1    6O2 

OJ-4 
500 
2,800 
27  2O4 

J* 
850 
2,800 
46  4  C.7 

Perforation    at    muzzle,    Har- 
vey ed  nickel  steel  .  .  .  .inches 
Perforation  at  muzzle,   Krupp 
armor  inches 

4.19 

•5.-JC 

6.12 
4  QO 

7-51 
6.01 

9-35 

7.71 

13-57 
10  66 

18.57 

14  86 

23.42 

l8  74 

Remaining    velocity    at     1000 
yards  foot-seconds 

2,328 

2,477 

2,460 

2,  Cl6 

2,  e-ji 

2,1:87 

2  6lQ 

Perforation    at    1000   yards   of 
Harveyed  nickel  steel,  inches 
Perforation    at    1000    yards  of 
Krupp  armor  inches 
Remaining     velocity     at    2000 
yards                    foot-seconds 

2.98 
2.38 
I    806 

4-77 
3-91 
2  O46 

6.03 
4.82 

2  O87 

7-74 
6.19 
2  181 

11.86 
9.49 

2  288 

16.71 
13.37 

0     -7QI 

21.42 
16.84 
24  C.O 

Perforation    at    2000   yards   of 
Harveyed  nickel  steel,  inches 
Perforation    at    2000   yards   of 
Krupp  armor                  inches 

2.13 
I.  7O 

3.68 

2  Q4 

4.85 

i  88 

6.40 

512 

10.37 

8  10 

^'jy1 
15.04 

12  O7 

19.60 

15  68 

Remaining     velocity     at    3000 
yards  foot-seconds 
Perforation    at   3000   yards   of 
Harveyed  nickel  steel,  inches 
Perforation   at   3000  yards  of 
Krupp  armor    .              inches 

1,401 
1.52 

1.22 

1,690 
2.85 

2  28 

1,771 
3-89 
•i.  ii 

1,893 

5-3° 
4  24 

«j.j<_» 
2,068 
9.06 
661 

-•"J 
2,209 

13.53 

10  82 

2,291 
17.92 

M,-1A 

With  capped  projectiles  an  increased  thickness  of  from  15  to  20 
per  cent,  may  be  perforated. 

The  Maxim,  the  Driggs-Schroederr  and  the  Hotchkiss  are  the 
smaller  rapid-fire  guns  used  in  the  United  States  navy  to  make  up 
the  secondary  battery  of  war  ships.  They  range  in  size  from  the  i- 
pounder  to  the  12-pounder  and  use  fixed  ammunition.  The  3- 
pounder  semi-automatic  gun  has  a  speed  of  40  shots  per  minute  and 
the  fully  automatic  gun  a  speed  of  70  shots  per  minute.  The  same 
device  can  be  applied  to  and  materially  increases  the  speed  of  the  6- 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  431 

pounder  gun.  Maxim  has  also  perfected  a  fully  automatic  9-pounder 
gun  that  fires  60  shots  in  a  minute.  All  these  guns  have  a  high 
velocity  and  are  able  to  pierce  an  inch  or  two  of  steel  at  the  distance 
of  a  mile.  They  can  make  a  good  target  at  3000  yards  and  are  a 
very  effective  reply  to  the  torpedo  boat —  "  the  dread  that  must  be 
halted  when  afar."  When  the  6-pounder  guns  were  tested  prior  to 
purchase  by  the  government,  the  Hotchkiss  fired  28  rounds  in  one 
minute,  83  rounds  in  three  minutes;  the  Maxim,  20  rounds  in  one 
minute,  and  65  rounds  in  three  minutes;  the  Driggs-Schroeder,  34 
rounds  in  one  minute  and  83  rounds  in  three  minutes.  The  honors 
are  supposed  to  be  about  even  between  the  Hotchkiss  and  the 
Driggs-Schroeder.  The  latter  gun  is  made  by  the  celebrated  firm  of 
Cramp  Brothers  of  Philadelphia.  The  accuracy  of  the  gun  is  re- 
markable. Ten  rounds  were  fired  at  a  target  26  feet  by  40  feet,  at  a 
distance  of  a  mile,  all  hitting  the  target,  and  the  most  of  them  pretty 
close  to  the  center  of  impact. 

Guns  of  a  yet  smaller  caliber  using  the  ammunition  regularly 
issued  for  small  arms  are  called  machine  guns.  Of  these  the  Catling 
is  the  earliest  and  best  known.  It  was  invented  in  1861  by  Dr. 
Richard  Jordan  Catling.  It  consists  of  ten  (sometimes  five)  barrels 
revolving  about  a  central  pivot,  something  like  the  cylinder  of  a 
revolver,  each  barrel  being  fired  as  it  comes  opposite  a  given  point. 
The  gunlocks  are  of  the  bolt  principle  and  each  'barrel  has  its  own 
bolt,  firing  pin,  and  cartridge  extractor.  With  the  improved  Accles 
feed  1200  rounds  per  minute  can  be  fired.  If  an  accident  occurs  to 
the  mechanism  of  one  barrel  the  other  nine  can  yet  be  used.  The 
gun  is  operated  by  turning  a  crank  and  its  projectiles  have  about  the 
same  range,  velocity,  arfd  penetration  as  the  soldier's  rifle  using 
the  same  cartridge./  ^It  can  be  trained  with  far  more  accuracy  than 
small  arms  from  the  shoulder.  It  has  no  rrerves  to  be  disturbed  in 
the  din,  confusion,  and  carnage  of  the  battle  field."  The  gun  was 


432  THE    MARVELS   OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

perfected  in  time  to  be  used  during  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  arid 
gave  excellent  satisfaction. 

In  the  Franco-German  war  a  few  of  them  repulsed  a  charge  of 
the  best  trained  soldiers  of  the  German  army.  In  1898,  in  the  land 
battles  before  Santiago,  Lieutenant  Parker  took  a  battery  of  Gatling 
guns  to  the  front,  100  yards  in  advance  of  the  firing  line,  and  clearly 
demonstrated  that  they  were  equal  in  firing  efficiency  to  a  regiment 
of  soldiers.  Having  ten  barrels  the  Gatling  does  not  heat  as  do 
single  barrel  guns,  and  as  many  as  63,000  cartridges  have  been  fired 
in  a  single  test  without  stopping  to  wipe  out  the  barrels.  The  gun 
complete  with  carriage  and  limber  weighs  about  600  pounds,  or 
rather  less  than  a  piece  of  ordinary  field  artillery. 

The  Gatling  can  be  used  to  deliver  a  high  angle  fire  to  trenches. 
With  the  gun  elevated  85  degrees  the  bullets  describe  a  curve  and 
descend  point  downward,  striking  500  yards  from  the  gun  with  a  force 
sufficient  to  penetrate  two  or  three  inches  of  timber.  The  gun  can 
be  used  for  this  purpose  up  to  its  extreme  range,  the  greater  the 
range  the  less  the  elevation  required.  Two  Gatling  guns  with  steel 
shields  to  protect  the  operator  are  furnished  each  regiment  of 
United  States  infantry. 

The  Maxim  uses  the  force  of  recoil  to  operate  the  piece.  If  a 
cartridge  is  put  in  position  and  the  trigger  pressed,  the  gun  continues 
to  shoot  as  long  as  the  trigger  is  held  back  and  the  ammunition  in 
the  magazine  lasts.  It  is  claimed  that  with  this  gun  as  many  as  700 
rounds  per  minute  have  been  fired.  It  has  but  one  barrel,  which  is 
surrounded  by  a  water  jacket  to  keep  it  cool.  The  gun  can  be  made 
to  use  the  ammunition  issued  for  military  rifles. 

The  Colt  automatic  is  a  new  machine  gun  which  has  recently 
sprung  into  notice.  It  has  a  thick  barrel  and  does  not  heat  so  rap- 
idly from  firing  as  guns  with  lighter  barrels,  and  the  larger  surface  of 
the  barrel  radiates  the  heat  faster  and  so  the  barrel  has  no  water 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  433 

jacket.  All  that  is  necessary  to  operate  it  after  the  first  shot  is  to 
keep  the  finger  pressed  on  the  trigger  and  the  gun  aimed,  and  it  will 
continue  to  fire  at  the  rate  of  400  shots  per  minute  until  all  the  car- 
tridges are  exhausted.  This  gun  is  not  operated  by  hand  as  is  the 
Gatling,  or  by  force  of  the  recoil  as  is  the  Maxim,  but  near  the  muz- 
zle is  a  small  vent  from  which,  when  the  projectile  has  reached  its 


COLT  MACHINE  GUN. 

highest  speed,  a  small  portion  of  the  gas  is  allowed  to  escape  into  a 
gas  cylinder  fitted  with  a  piston,  and  from  this,  motion  is  transmitted 
to  operate  the  breech  mechanism.  Such  a  system  is  said  to  give 
simpler  and  stronger  mechanism  then  one  employing  the  recoil  to 
operate  it.  The  gas  employed  does  not  decrease  the  range  and 
accuracy  of  the  gun  for  it  is  not  used  until  the  projectile  has 
attained  its  maximum  velocity.  "The  hammer  of  this  gun  is  also 


434  THE   MARVELS    OF   MODERN   MECHANISM. 

used  as  a  piston  for  an  air  pump  which  forces  a  strong  jet  of  air  into 
the  chamber  and  through  the  barrel,  removing  all  residue  or  un- 
burned  powder  after  the  empty  shell  is  extracted."  The  United 
States  government  tests  require  for  it  a  speed  of  at  least  400  rounds 
per  minute,  but  the  guns  used  by  the  British  government  are  "  tuned 
up"  to  500  shots  per  minute.  It  is  a  model  of  neatness  and  accu- 
racy. In  a  recent  test,  it  in  one  minute  placed  185  shots  within  a 
12-inch  circle  at  a  distance  of  300  yards.  Another  strong  feature  is 
that  the  gun  alone  weighs  but  40  pounds, with  its  trip'od  and  mount- 
ings complete  only  94  pounds,  and  so  can  be  carried  about  wherever 

infantry  can  go  and  use  the  same  ammunition  as  the  soldier.      "  For 

• 

use  in  cavalry  service,  this  gun,  fitted  to  a  light  tripod,  can  be  carried 

by  a  trooper  in  a  cavalry  boot,  the  whole  equipment  being  readily 
transported  and  handled  in  action  by  one  man."  The  gun  has  given 
a  good  account  of  itself  in  the  Philippines,  in  South  Africa,  and  in 
China,  its  light  weight  rendering  it  available  where  heavier  guns 
could  not  be  carried. 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  MODERN  WAR  SHIP. 

The  application  of  steam  as  a  motive  power  to  war  ships  has 
brought  forth  some  marvelous  changes. 

The  Old  vs.  the  New.  The  sailing  vessel  was  helpless  in  a  calm. 
Ships  starting  from  different  ports  to  meet  at  a  given  point  on  a 
certain  day  had  no  assurance  they  would  be  able  to  arrive  in  time. 
Their  only  weapon,  the  gun,  was  of  so  crude  a  type  that  it  to-day 
seems  insignificant.  It  had  no  sights,  or  only  those  of  the  rudest 
kind,  for  its  range  was  so  short  that  they  were  hardly  thought  neces- 
sary. To-day  it  is  fitted  with  the  finest  telescopic  sights  that  will 
show  buttons  on  uniforms  miles  away.  Its  round  cast  iron  solid  shot 
would  not  penetrate  the  side  of  a  battle  ship  except  at  closest  range. 
Modern  projectiles  will  penetrate  a  yard  of  wrought  iron  and  each 


THE     "CONSTITUTION/ 


THE   "OREGON." 
TYPICAL  BATTLESHIPS  OF  THE   FIRST  AND   LAST  OF  THE   I9TH   CENTURY. 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  435 

carry  a  bursting  charge  sufficient  to  have  wrecked  the  flagship  of 
Nelson.  The  torpedo  was  then  a  dream  of  the  most  sanguine  in- 
ventor and  the  ram  an  impossibility  to  a  ship  with  sails. 

Independence  of  Steam.  Machinery  has  changed  all  this.  The 
steam  engine  has  made  the  war  ship  practically  independent  of  wind 
and  tide.  It  can  proceed  in  a  straight  line  continuously  and  arrive 
at  its  destination  at  a  given  date,  while  the  sailing  vessel  went  zig- 
zagging with  the  varying  winds  and  might  lie  motionless  for  days 
becalmed.  By  machinery  huge  masses  of  iron  are  easily  handled 
that  could  not  have  been  moved  by  hand.  Rolling  mills  and  steam 
hammers  have  made  possible  the  construction  of  iron  ships.  As  first 
applied  to  navigation,  steam  power  could  not  be  used  successfully  in 
the  battle  ship.  The  huge  paddle  wheels  were  easily  damaged  by  shot, 
and  they  took  up  the  room  on  the  sides  of  the  ship  that  should  have 
been  occupied  by  the  heaviest  guns.  With  the  perfection  of  the 
screw  propeller  and  the  disappearance  of  the  paddle  wheel  a  new  era 
was  inaugurated.  Under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  the' sail- 
ing vessel  might  make  fourteen  or  fifteen  knots  per  hour  for  a  short 
time.  Torpedo  boats  now  make  more  than  forty  miles  an  hour. 
"  Nelson,  in  his  three  months'  chase  after  Villeneuve,  made  an  aver- 
age of  93  miles  per  day."  The  United  States  cruiser  Columbia 
steamed  from  Southampton  to  New  York,  over  3000  miles,  at  an 
average  of  more  than  500  miles  per  day. 

Nothing  Perfect.  In  spite  of  the  marked  progress  of  the  age, 
the  ship  builder  is  constantly  reminded  that  for  him  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  finality,  for  the  triumphs  of  the  gun  maker  frequently  ren- 
der his  ship  obsolete  almost  as  soon  as  it  is  launched. 

"  Constitution"  vs.  "  Oregon."  It  will  help  us  to  understand 
clearly  the  progress  that  has  been  made  in  war  ships  if  we  compare 
one  of  the  best  of  one  hundred  years  ago  with  one  of  to-day.  We 
will  select  the  Constitution  and  the  Oregon.  Our  schoolbooks  have 


436  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

made  us  familiar  with  the  brilliant  war  reco&J&of  the  one,  and  the 
long  voyage  around  South  America  and  splendid  performance  at  San- 
tiago of  the  other  are  still  fresh  in  our  memories.  The  Constitution 
was  built  wholly  of  wood ;  the  Oregon  of  iron  and  steel.  The  Con- 
stitution depended  for  motive  power  on  her  vast  expanse  of  snowy 
sails,  stretched  on  towering  masts  and  tapering  yards.  In  a  calm, 
she  was  helpless.  The  masts  of  the  Oregon  seem  like  rudimentary 
organs  and  she  is  driven  by  engines  of  enormous  horse  power,  mak- 
ing her  independent  of  wind  or  tide.  The  one  was  a  picture  of  grace 
and  beauty;  the  other  is  a  bare,  grim  fighting  machine. 

Dimensions.  The  Constitution  was  173  feet  long,  44  feet  wide, 
had  a  displacement  of  about  1576  tons,  a  complement  of  475  officers 
and  men,  and  cost  $302,718.  The  Oregon  is  348  feet  long,  69  feet 
3  inches  wide,  has  a  displacement  of  10,288  tons,  a  complement  of 
463  officers  and  men,  and  cost  $6,575,032.76.  The  Constitution  was 
lighted  by  smoky  battle  lanterns,  inclosing  a  tallow  candle,  whose 
rays  penetrated  into  the  darkness  but  a  few  yards ;  beyond  that  all 
was  gloom.  A  boat  attack  by  night  was  a  favorite  maneuver  in 
those  days.  The  Oregon  is  lighted  by  electricity  and  equipped  with 
powerful  search  lights  that  can  render  visible  the  buildings  of  a  city 
ten  miles  away.  All  the  work  on  the  old  ship  was  performed  by 
hand  labor;  on  the  new  one  machinery  propels  the  ship,  hoists  the 
anchor,  turns  the  turrets  and  aims  and  fires  the  guns;  hand  labor  is 
at  a  minimum.  The  Constitution  mounted  54  guns;  the  Oregon  has 
but  1 6  in  her  main  battery.  The  weight  of  all  the  shot  in  one  broad- 
side of  the  Constitution  was  684  pounds.  *  A  single  shell  from  the 
13-inch  guns  of  the  Oregon  weighs  iioo  pounds.  The  shot  of  the 
Constitution  would  not  penetrate  the  thinnest  armor  of  the  Oregon. 
One  shot  from  the  1 3-inch  guns  of  the  Oregon  develops  enough 
power  to  lift  the  Constitution  bodily  more  than  twenty  feet. 

*  Her  shot  were  short  in  weight. 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  437 

Commander's  Personal  Prowess.  A  century  ago,  the  com- 
manding officer  stood  on  deck  in  plain  view  and  encouraged  his  men 
by  voice  and  example.  In  hand-to-hand  encounters,  even  his  per- 
sonal prowess  might  become  a  factor.  To-day  the  commander  is 
shut  up  within  a  steel  conning  tower,  intended  to  be  impenetrable 
to  shot ;  only  a  few  officers  see  him,  and  his  orders  are  transmitted 
by  means  of  speaking  tubes,  telephones,  and  electric  bells. 

Range  of  Guns.  The  guns  of  the  Constitution  had  an  accurate 
range  of  less  than  a  mile ;  the  Oregon,  in  pursuit  of  the  Cristobal 
Colon  off  Santiago,  threw  1 3-inch  shells  over  and  beyond  the  latter 
ship  at  a  range  of  more  than  five  miles.  The  need  of  armor  to  de- 
fend a  ship  from  such  destructive  missiles  is  manifest. 

Antiquity  of  Armor.  The  idea  of  armor  for  ships  is  an  old  one. 
The  galleys  of  the  early  Greeks  and  Romans  were  frequently 
strengthened  by  bands  of  iron  which  sometimes  met  at  the  prow  and 
formed  a  ram.  The  Norse  "Sea  Kings"  hung  the  shields  of  their 
soldiers  along  the  sides  of  their  galleys,  and  later  the  knights  of  St. 
John  covered  their  ships  with  lead.  Of  all  metals,  this  would  seem 
the  least  suitable  unless  it  were  for  protection  against  some  of  the 
liquid  forms  of  Greek  fire.  Coming  to  more  modern  times,  the  float- 
ing batteries  used  by  the  Spanish  when  besieging  Gibraltar,  in  1783, 
were  protected  by  heavy  walls  of  timber,  strengthened  by  thick- 
nesses of  hide  and  bars  of  iron.  The  old  time  line-of-battle  ship  was, 
in  a  sense,  armored,  for  her  sides  were  made  heavy  and  solid  about 
the  water  line  to  withstand  shot.  The  go-gun  ship  had  ribs  of  1 6-inch 
oak  timber,  only  a  few  inches  apart,  covered  on  the  outside  with 
planking  eight  inches  thick  and  inside  seven  inches. 

The  First  War  Steamer.  During  the  War  of  1812  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  Robert  Fulton  proposed  to  build 
an  impregnable  floating  battery,  propelled  by  steam,  able  to  drive 
away  the  blockading  squadron  at  the  mouth  of  the  Delaware. 


438  THE   MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

Congress  authorized  the  construction  of  such  a  vessel.  The  craft  was 
peculiar  enough  to  be  interesting  aside  from  the  fact  that  she  was  the 
first  steam  war  ship  and  larger  by  tons  than  any  other  steamer  pre- 
viously launched.  The  official  report  of  the  government  inspector 
says: — 

"  She  is  a  structure  resting  upon  two  boats,  keels  separated  from 
end  to  end  by  a  canal  fifteen  feet  wide  and  sixty-six  feet  long.  One 
boat  contains  the  caldrons  of  copper  to  prepare  her  steam.  The  vast 
cylinder  of  iron,  with  its  piston,  levers,  and  wheels,  occupies  a  part 
of  its  fellow;  the  great  water  wheel  revolves  in  the  space  between 
them;  the  main  or  gun  deck  supporting  her  armament  is  protected 
by  a  bulwark  four  feet  ten  inches  thick,  of  solid  timber.  This  is 
pierced  by  thirty  portholes,  to  enable  as  many  32-pounders  to  fire 
red  hot  balls;  her  upper  or  spar  deck,  upon  which  several  thousand 
men  might  parade,  is  encompassed  by  a  bulwark  which  affords  safe 
quarters.  Her  machinery  is  calculated  for  the  addition  of  an  engine 
which  will  discharge  an  immense  column  of  water,  which  it  is  intended 
to  throw  upon  the  decks  and  all  through  the  ports  of  an  enemy. 
With  lOO-pounder  columbiads,  two  suspended  from  each  bow,  so  as 
to  discharge  a  ball  of  that  size  into  an  enemy's  ship  ten  or  twelve 
feet  below  the  water  line,  it  must  be  allowed  that  she  has  the  appear- 
ance at  least  of  being  the  most  formidable  engine  of  warfare  that 
human  ingenuity  has  contrived." 

Effect  of  Blockade.  The  keels  were  laid  in  a  New  York  ship 
yard  June  20,  1814,  the  boat  was  named  Fulton  the  First,  and 
launched  October  18,  1814.  The  low  state  of  the  treasury  and  de- 
pression of  public  credit  delayed  the  completion.  Then,  too,  there 
were  no  cannon  at  New  York  suitable  to  arm  her  and  twenty  guns 
had  to  be  dragged  by  horses  over  the  wretched  roads  between  Phila- 
delphia and  New  York  because  of  the  presence  of  a  blockading  fleet 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Delaware.  In  spite  of  all  these  difficulties  and 


MILITARY   ART  AND    SCIENCE.  439 

the  death  of  Fulton  (Feb.  20,  1815)  she  made  her  first  trial  June  I, 
1815,  nine  months  after  her  keel  was  laid. 

"  She  was  found  capable  of  opposing  the  wind,  of  stemming  the 
tide,  and  of  being  steered  among  vessels  riding  at  anchor  though  the 
weather  was  boisterous  and  the  water  rough.  Her  performance  dem- 
onstrated the  success  of  Fulton's  idea,  and  that  a  floating  battery 
composed  of  heavy  artillery  could  be  moved  by  steam." 

The  war  having  closed,  no  trial  of  her  fighting  qualities  was  pos- 
sible. She  was  used  as  a  receiving  ship  at  Brooklyn  navy  yard  until 
1829,  when  she  was  blown  up. 

After  the  War  of  1812  the  development  of  home  industries  and 
internal  improvements  offered  such  a  wide  and  profitable  field  to 
American  ingenuity  and  industry  that  not  much  attention  was  paid 
to  naval  affairs.  America  seemed  to  be  content  with  the  building  of 
wooden  frigates  similar  to  those  that  had  distinguished  themselves  in 
single  combat  with  vessels  of  the  same  rating  in  the  British  navy. 
Correspondingly  little  was  done  abroad  and  for  more  than  a  genera- 
tion the  experimental  work  of  a  few  great  engineers  constituted 
nearly  the  whole  sum  of  naval  progress. 

Stevens  Family  of  Inventors.  The  Stevens  family  stand  promi- 
nent among  those  advanced  pickets  of  mechanical  progress.  For 
generations  they  were  famous  American  engineers,  and  different 
members  of  the  family  were  contemporaneous  rivals  of  Fitch,  Fulton, 
Bomford,  Ressell,  Paixhans,  and  Ericsson. 

Twin  Screw  Propeller.  In  1804  Col.  John  C.  Stevens  of 
Hoboken,  N.  J.,  fitted  out  a  steamboat  with  a  double  screw.  It 
went  from  Hoboken  to  New  York  and  return  with  an  average  speed 
of  four  miles  an  hour;  for  a  short  distance  at  the  rate  of  seven  or 
eight  miles  an  hour.  His  propeller  was  a  crude  four-bladed  one  and 
his  engine  was  not  large  enough  to  develop  the  power  required  to 
make  his  boat  a  success.  (This  engine  is  now  preserved  in  the 


440  THE   MARVELS   OF   MODERN   MECHANISM. 

Stevens  Institute  of  Technology  at  Hoboken.)  In  1812  he  planned 
for  the  defense  of  New  York  a  circular  fort  which  was  to  be  plated 
with  iron  and  revolved  by  machinery,  and  the  same  year  submitted 
a  plan  for  a  boat  closely  resembling  the  now  famous  Monitor  type, 
also  to  be  ironclad.  This  is  said  to  be  the  first  plan  for  a  fully 
armored  ship.  A  little  later  his  son,  Edwin  A.  Stevens,  who  after- 
ward founded  the  Stevens  Institute  of  Technology,  made  a  series  of 
experiments  with  6-pound  cannon  to  determine  the  resisting  power 
of  iron  plates. 

Stevens  Battery.  Another  son,  Robert  L.  Stevens,  designed 
the  Stevens  battery  in  1832.  After  a  time  a  government  board  ap- 
proved the  plan,  its  construction  was  authorized,  Congress  voted  an 
appropriation  of  $250,000,  and  its  keel  was  laid  in  1843. 

As  originally  planned,  it  was  to  be  250  feet  long,  28  feet  wide, 
covered  with  4*^  inches  of  armor,  which  the  experiments  of  the 
Stevens  brothers  had  proved  would  resist  the  64-pound  cannon  of 
that  day  at  30  yards.  Triumphs  of  the  gun  maker  necessitated 
changes  in  the  vessel  from  time  to  time,  until  her  dimensions  were 
nearly  doubled,  and  a  square  movable  turret  added,  but  the  gun 
made  such  rapid  improvement  that  the  craft  was  unable  to  keep  pace 
and  was  never  completed,  but  was  broken  up  and  sold  in  1881.  It 
was  the  first  ironclad  steamer  projected,  and  cost  the  Stevens  family 
upwards  of  two  million  dollars. 

Forced  Draught.  Forced  draught  was  another  great  improvement 
made  by  the  Stevens  brothers  and  patented  April,  1842.  It  con- 
sists in  making  all  entrances  into  the  fire  room  air  tight,  then  forcing 
in  air  by  powerful  fans  until  the  pressure  becomes  all  the  firemen 
can  endure.  By  this  means  air  is  forced  into  the  furnaces,  causing 
the  fires  to  burn  furiously,  raising  the  steam  pressure,  and  making 
higher  speed  possible.  In  the  famous  chase  off  Santiago,  when  the 
coal  passers  were  falling  unconscious  in  the  stifling  fire  rooms  of  the 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  441 

Oregon,  the  engineer  asked  the  captain  to  fire  a  gun  that  the  men 
might  think  they  were  in  action,  knowing  the  excitement  of  battle 
would  make  them  forget  their  physical  exhaustion. 

Ericsson's  Propeller.  One  of  the  most  important  improvements 
in  naval  engineering  was  the  adaptation  of  the  screw  propeller  to  the 
war  ship,  for  the  screw  is  small,  powerful,  simple  in  construction,  not 
easily  injured,  and  so  far  beneath  the  water  as  to  be  secure  from  shot 
and  shell.  Rude  ones  were  tried  about  as  early  as  the  paddle  wheel, 
but  it  remained  for  John  Ericsson  to  first  produce  a  really  servicea- 
ble one.  His  boat,  the  Francis  B.  Ogden,  was  given  a  trial  on  the 
Thames  river,  April,  1837,  and  attained  a  speed  of  ten  miles  an 
hour.  The  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  witnessed  the  trial  but  did  not 
approve  of  the  scheme. 

Its  Reception  in  England.  Sir  William  Symonds,  Chief  Con- 
structor of  the  Royal  Navy,  said:  "  Even  if  the  propeller  had  the 
power  of  propelling  the  vessel,  it  would  be  found  altogether  useless 
in  practice  because,  the  power  being  applied  in  the  stern,  it  would 
be  absolutely  impossible  to  make  the  vessel  steer." 

Ericsson  in  America.  Francis  B.  Ogden,  U.  S.  consul  to  Liver- 
pool, and  Captain  Stockton  of  the  United  States  navy,  induced 
Ericsson  to  emigrate  to  America.  A  new  war  ship,  the  Princeton, 
was  authorized,  and  Ericsson  designed  her  engines,  placed  them  be- 
neath the  water  line,  fitted  her  with  a  screw  propeller  and  coupled 
the  shaft  directly  to  the  engine.  "  For  the  first  time  in  a  vessel  of 
war  the  machinery  was  placed  below  the  water  line,  out  of  reach  of 
shot,"  and  again  a  marked  advance  was  made.  The  French  at  once 
gave  Ericsson's  agent  an  order  for  a  propeller,  which  they  fitted  to 
the  war  ship  Pomone,  and  the  British  navy  changed  the  plans  of  the 
steamer  Rattler,  almost  ready  to  be  launched,  from  the  paddle  wheel 
to  a  propeller  of  another  type. 

The   Revolving  Turret.       The   period    seems    to   have    been    a 


442  THE   MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

prolific  one  for  military  ideas,  and  we  find  Theodore  S.  Timby,  of 
Dutchess  county,  New  York,  presenting  in  1841  a  model  of  a  metallic 
revolving  tower.  He  filed  his  caveat  with  the  patent  office  January 
1 8,  1843,  and  the  same  year  completed  and  exhibited  an  iron  model. 
A  little  later  he  presented  a  model  to  the  Emperor  of  China 'through 
the  American  representative,  Caleb  Cushing.  In  1848  a  commission 
of  Congress  made  a  favorable  report  to  the  Secretary  of  War  upon 
Timby's  proposed  system,  and  when  the  Civil  War  broke  out  he  had 
been  granted  patents  for  "a  revolving  metallic  tower"  and  for  a 
"floating  battery  to  be  propelled  by  steam."  His  claim  was  so 
good  a  one  that  when  Ericsson  began  the  construction  of  the 
Monitor,  a  United  States  court  granted  Timby  an  injunction,  restrain- 
ing Ericsson  from  proceeding  until  he  should  have  paid  Timby  a 
royalty  for  the  use  of  his  invention.  Timby  settled  with  Ericsson 
and  his  financial  backers,  Bushnell  and  Delameter,  for  $100,000. 

The  Lesson  of  Sinope.  An  added  stimulus  was  given  to  inven- 
tion by  the  Battle  of  Sinope,  November  30,  1853,  where  a  Turkish 
fleet,  armed  with  guns  firing  solid  shot  and  anchored  under  the  pro- 
tection of  a  shore  battery,  was  annihilated  within  an  hour  by  a  Rus- 
sian fleet  armed  with  smooth-bore  shell  guns.  The  carnage  on  the 
Turkish  side  was  frightful  and  the  loss  to  the  Russians  but  slight. 
It  was  not  a  battle,  it  was  a  massacre.  It  was  after  this  that  Sir 
John  Hay  said,  "  The  man  who  goes  into  action  in  a  wooden  ship  is 
a  fool,  and  the  man  who  sends  him  there  is  a  villain."  The  succeed- 
ing year  the  English  and  French  wooden  ships  were  roughly  handled 
by  the  shore  batteries  in  an  attack  on  Sevastopol. 

The  long  shell  gun  then  loomed  up  as  a  most  dangerous  weapon, 
and  the  question  of  armor  for  ships  received  earnest  attention.  The 
French,  keenly  alive  to  the  spirit  of  the  age  and  mindful  of  the 
severe  lessons  they  had  received,  were  the  first  to  actually  complete 
armored  floating  batteries.  In  1854  they  constructed  and  hurried  to 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  443 

the  Crimea  three  floating  batteries  with  a  speed  of  four  knots  an 
hour,  armed  with  5<D-pound  Paixhans  guns  and  protected  by  four 
inches  of  iron.  These  rendered  their  best  service  at  the  Battle  of 
Kinburn,  October  17,  185$,  where  without  material  damage  to  them- 
selves they  steamed  in  close  under  the  guns  of  the  Russian  fort  and 
were  the  chief  factor  in  compelling  its  surrender. 

Era  of  Ironclad  Begins.  This  was  the  first  appearance  in  actual 
warfare  of  the  ironclad  and  her  superiority  was  proved  beyond  a  ques- 
tion of  doubt.  "It  is  with  the  Crimean  War  that  the  age  of  the 
ironclad  may  be  said  to  begin." 

First  Sea-going  Ironclad.  The  Crimean  War  over,  France  at 
once  proceeded  to  construct  an  iron-plated  frigate.  She  took  La 
Gloire,  a  wooden  two-decker,  removed  the  upper  deck  and  used  the 
weight  thus  gained  to  carry  a  belt  of  4^  inch  iron  armor  extending 
from  end  to  end.  She  had  no  ram,  but  carried  the  iron  plates  for- 
ward to  strengthen  her  bow.  This  ship  was  fitted  with  sail  and  steam 
power,  armed  with  shell  guns,  could  make  13  knots  an  hour,  and  was 
the  first  sea-going  ironclad  to  be  completed.  Others  soon  followed, 
and  so  industrious  were  the  French  that  in  1861  they  had  a  more 
powerful  navy  than  England. 

English  Turret  Ship.  The  English  did  not  remain  unmoved. 
In  1859  they  produced  the  Warrior,  made  of  iron  and  especially 
designed  to  carry  armor.  She  was  420  feet  long,  and  had  a  great 
patch  of  plate  218  feet  long  and  4^  inches  thick  over  her  battery  and^' 
water  line  covering  about  half  her  length.  In  1860  Captain  Coles 
of  the  English  navy  submitted  a  plan  -of  a  ship  to  carry  nine  con- 
ical turrets,  each  to  contain  a  pair  of  guns.  The  plan  was  not 
accepted.  The  first  English  turret  ship  was  the  Royal  Sovereign,  a 
three-decker  cut  down  to  Captain  Coles's  plan,  plated  on  the  water 
line  and  above  with  4^  inch  iron.  Four  turrets  were  placed  on  her 
decks  protected  by  armor  ten  inches  in  front  tapering  to  five  inches 


444         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

in  the  rear.  The  forward  turrets  carried  two  guns  each  and  the 
others  each  one  gun.  The  turrets  were  not  mounted  on  a  spindle  as 
in  the  Monitor  but  their  bases  rested  on  rollers  and  the  whole  was 
slowly  turned  by  hand  power.  She  was  tried  July,  1864,  and  ac- 
cepted soon  afterward.  The  Coles  type  of  turret  is  the  one  in  use 
to-day. 

American  Civil  War.  At  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War  the 
Federal  Government  had  but  one  available  war  ship  on  the  Atlantic 
coast.  The  control  of  the  Mississippi  river  was  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance, and  for  this  gunboats  were  necessary.  Their  need  was  so 
urgent  that  time  was  of  the  greatest  consideration.  Captain  James 
B.  Eads  of  St.  Louis,  afterward  a  famous  engineer,  undertook  to 
construct  in  sixty-five  days  seven  gunboats,  each  carrying  2  ^  inches 
of  armor  and  propelled  by  a  paddle  wheel  at  the  stern  fitted  into  a 
recess  in  the  hull  for  the  sake  of  protection.  Only  a  courageous  man 
would  have  dared  undertake  such  a  contract  and  only  one  of  surpass- 
ing executive  ability  could  have  carried  it  out.  During  a  period 
famous  for  tremendous  exertion  and  remarkable  achievement  this 
mobilization  of  constructive  forces  by  Captain  Eads  stands  preemi- 
nent. "  Rolling-mills,  machine  shops,  foundries,  forges,  and  saw- 
mills were  all  idle.  The  engines  that  were  to  drive  this,  our  first 
ironclad  fleet,  were  yet  to  be  built.  The  timber  to  form  the  hulls 
was  uncut  in  the  forest ;  the  huge  rollers  and  machinery  for  making 
their  iron  armor  were  not  yet  constructed." 

Military  Value  of  Telegraph.  "The  signatures  were  scarcely 
dry  upon  this  important  contract  before  the  work  was  actively  begun 
through  telegraphic  orders  issued  from  Washington.  Special  agents 
were  dispatched  in  every  direction,  and  sawmills  were  simultaneously 
occupied  in  sawing  the  timber  required  in  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Illi- 
nois, Indiana,  Ohio,  Minnesota,  and  Missouri,  and  railroads,  steam- 
boats, and  barges  engaged  for  its  immediate  transportation.  Nearly 


MILITARY  ART  AND   SCIENCE.  445 

all  the  largest  machine  shops  and  foundries  in  St.  Louis,  and  many 
small  ones,  were  at  once  set  at  work  day  and  night,  and  the  telegraph 
lines  between  St.  Louis  and  Pittsburg  and  Cincinnati  were  occupied 
frequently  for  hours  in  transmitting  instructions  to  similar  establish- 
ments in  those  cities  for  the  construction  of  the  twenty-one  steam 
engines  and  five  and  thirty  steam  boilers  that  were  to  propel  the 
fleet.  Within  two  weeks  not  less  than  four  thousand  men  were  en- 
gaged in  the  various  details  of  their  construction.  Neither  the 
sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  nor  the  darkness  of  the  night  was  permitted 
to  interrupt  it.  On  the  I2th  of  October,  1861,  the  first  United 
States  ironclad,  with  her  boilers  and  engines  on  board,  was  launched 
in  the  Missouri  in  forty-five  days  from  the  laying  of  her  keel.  The 
others  followed  in  rapid  succession.  An  eighth  vessel,  larger,  more 
powerful,  and  superior  in  every  respect,  was  also  undertaken  before 
the  hulls  of  the  first  seven  had  fairly  assumed  shape.  In  less  than 
one  hundred  days  one  individual  put  in  construction  and  completed 
eight  steamers,  capable  of  steaming  nine  knots  an  hour,  each  heavily 
armored,  fully  equipped,  and  all  ready  for  their  armament." 

These  were  the  first  ironclads  the  United  States  used  in  warfare 
and  in  the  curved  armor  deck  of  Captain  Eads  we  have  the  prototype 
of  the  present  protective  deck. 

Ericsson's  "  Monitor."  Another  remarkable  feat  of  naval  engi- 
neering was  shortly  to  follow.  Ericsson's  Monitor  was  authorized  in 
1 86 1.  She  was  especially  designed  to  navigate  shallow  harbors  and> 
rivers  and  to  be  impregnable  to  the  fire  of  forts.  She  was  173  feet 
long,  41  feet  wide,  drew  10  feet  of  water,  and  displaced  1255  tons. 
She  had  a  speed  of  nine  miles  an  hour,  and  was  protected  on  the 
sides  by  five  and  on  the  turret  by  eight  iron  plates  each  one  inch  in 
thickness.  The  rolling  mills  of  the  day  could  not  turn  out  heavier 
plates.  The  turret  was  20  feet  in  diameter  and  9  feet  high  and 
afforded  protection  to  two  ii-inch  smooth  bore  guns  firing  with  15 


446 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


'pounds  of  powder  a  i66-pound  shot.  She  was  a  combination  of  the 
Stevens  floating  battery,  the  Timby  turret,  and  the  Ericsson  screw 
propeller,  and  cost  $275,000.  She  was  completed  in  118  days  from 
date  of  contract  and  her  memorable  conflict  with  the  Virginia  (Mer- 
rimac]  in  Hampton  Roads,  March  9,  1862,  was  the  first  battle  in  the 
world  between  ironclad  ships. 


ERICSSON'S  "MONITOR." 

"Monitor"  vs.  "  Puritan."  While  her  best  directed  shots  would 
rattle  like  hail  on  the  Harveyized  steel  armor  of  the  Puritan,  the 
largest  monitor  of  to-day,  a  single  shell  from  the  powerful  lO-inch 
breech-loading  rifles  of  the  latter  would  crush  the  flimsy  iron  plates 
of  the  old  Monitor  like  an  egg  shell  and  bursting  inside  create 
frightful  havoc.  And  this  is  the  improvement  of  but  a  few  decades. 

How  War  Ships  are  Classified.  The  boy  who  asked  his  father 
the  difference  between  a  battle  ship  and  a  cruiser,  and  was  answered 
that  the  battle  ship  was  one  named  after  a  state  and  the  cruiser  one 
named  after  a  city,  may  have  been  satisfied  for  the  moment,  but  his 
confidence  in  his  father's  infallibility  must  some  time  receive  a  rude 
shock. 

Displacement.  One  may  take  up  a  newspaper  and  read  that  the 
construction  of  a  ship  has  been  authorized  of  a  definite  displace- 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  447 

ment  to  carry  as  thick  armor  and  as  heavy  guns  as  are  practicable. 
The  displacement  alone,  unless  the  cost  be  attached,  is  usually  the 
only  definite  quantity  named  and  is  now  the  weight  of  the  ship  com- 
plete. It  is  measured  by  the  weight  of  water  she  displaces  when 
afloat  and  is  not  to  be  confused  with  tonnage,  which  means  how 
much  she  can  carry. 

Usually  the  basis  for  the  designer  is  the  displacement,  which  may 
be  likened  to  a  bank  account,  in  exchange  for  which  he  may  have 
certain  things  whose  total  weight  must  not  exceed  his  proposed  dis- 
placement. These  are  the  hull,  engines,  fittings,  provisions,  coal, 
stores,  ammunition,  armor,  guns,  etc.  Their  total  weight  is  limited 
to  the  displacement,  but  in  what  proportion  shall  he  dispose  of 
them?  That  will  depend  upon  the  character  of  the  ship  he  is  to 
build. 

Class  Requirements.  If  a  cruiser,  to  catch  unarmed  merchant- 
men, speed  is  the  prime  requisite.  If  a  cruiser  capable  of  overcom- 
ing other  cruisers  she  is  likely  to  meet,  more  allowance  will  be  made 
for  armor  and  guns.  If  a  battle  ship,  armor  and  guns  will  receive  the 
first  consideration.  If  a  torpedo  boat,  to  steal  unseen  upon  an 
adversary  in  a  night  attack,  the  maximum  speed  and  the  minimum 
size  will  be  required.  All  these  types  make  fairly  distinct  classes 
with  well  marked  duties. 

Duties  of  a  Cruiser.  To  harass  commerce  by  capturing  un- 
armed or  lightly  armed  merchantmen  and  also  by  creating  such 
terror  that  merchantmen  will  not  dare  put  to  sea  when  the  cruiser  is 
known  to  be  abroad. 

To  protect  commerce  by  "convoying"  or  accompanying  as  a 
guard  merchant  fleets  through  dangerous  parts  of  a  route  or  from 
port  to  port. 

To  protect  commerce  by  clearing  hostile  cruisers  from  the  route. 

To  attack  unprotected  coasts  or  those  but  poorly  fortified,  or  by 


448  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

their  threatening  presence  compel  the  enemy  to  retain  ships  and  men 
for  defense  that  he  would  otherwise  use  in  an  attack  elsewhere. 

To  carry  on  small  wars  at  a  distance  where  a  powerful  fleet  is  not 
needed,  and  to- make  reprisals. 

To  act  as  scouts,  to  be  the  "  eyes  of  the  fleet."  It  is  important 
that  they  have  great  speed  to  do  this,  as  after  an  enemy  is  sighted 
every  hour  of  time  or  fraction  thereof  that  may  be  given  the  oppos- 
ing commander  for  preparation  is  valuable. 

To  keep  up  communication  between  a  squadron  and  the  base  of 
supplies. 

To  form  the  front,  rear,  and  wings  of  a  fleet  when  in  motion,  and 
to  be  the  first  to  discover  the  enemy. 

To  make  blockades  effective  by  being  able  to  catch  the  fastest 
merchantmen.  To  be  sure,  the  monitor  Terror  did  capture  a  prize 
off  Havana,  but  it  was  because  the  prize  was  within  range  of  the 
monitor's  guns  when  discovered.  A  hunter  doesn't  often  use  a  bull 
dog  to  catch  a  fox. 

Commerce  Destroyer.  If  the  cruiser  is  to  act  as  a  commerce 
destroyer  she  must  have  speed  enough  to  catch  the  fastest  merchant- 
men afloat  and  sufficient  gun  power  to  overcome  them  when  caught. 
That  she  may  have  speed,  the  most  powerful  engines  must  be  given 
her,  and  that  she  may  keep  at  sea  for  a  long  time  large  supplies  of 
coal  must  be  carried,  while  enough  protection  must  be  given  to  the 
"  vital  parts  "  of  the  cruiser  to  defend  them  from  any  guns  the  mer- 
chantman is  likely  to  carry. 

The  parts  that  must  be  defended  are  the  engines,  the  magazines, 
and  the  steering  gear.  Protection  is  given  by  placing  the  "vitals" 
of  the  ship  below  the  water  line,  because  few  projectiles  excepting 
plunging  shot  at  close  range  will  penetrate  much  below  the  water, 
and  by  covering  them  overhead  with  a  steel  "  protective  deck." 

Protective  Deck.     This   protective  deck,   usually  extending  the 


MILITARY   ART  AND    SCIENCE.  449 

whole  length  of  the  ship  from  side  to  side,  much  resembles  a  huge 
inverted  platter.  On  the  sides  and  ends  it  is  below  the  water  line, 
but  it  slopes  or  curves  upward  from  the  sides,  until  over  the  middle 
part  of  the  ship  it  is  as  high,  or  a  little  higher,  than  the  water,  and 
presents  a  flat,  or  nearly  flat,  surface,  like  the  bottom  of  the  platter. 
This  deck  is  made  of  finely  tempered  steel,  ranging  in  different  ships 
from  one  to  six  inches  in  thickness.  The  slopes  are  thickest  and  are 
intended  to  present  an  inclined  surface  from  which  shot  and  shell 
will  glance  without  penetrating.  Along  the  middle  part  of  the  ship, 
between  the  slopes  and  the  outer  wall,  bunkers  (coal  bins)  are 
arranged.  These  also  assist  in  protection,  for  a  foot  of  coal  is  equal 
to  about  one  inch  of  wrought  iron  or  half  an  inch  of  mild  steel  for 
this  purpose.  Below  the  protective  deck  everything  may  be  consid- 
ered pretty  safe  from  shot  and  shell.  The  protected  cruiser  does 
not  mount  heavy  guns.  If  as  large  as  4-inch  or  6-inch  they  are 
placed  on  the  highest  deck  and  protected  by  circular  gun  shields  of 
steel  armor  attached  to  the  gun  carriage  and  revolving  with  it.  The 
shield  is  usually  of  face-hardened  steel  about  four  inches  in  thickness, 
and  can  successfully  resist  common  shell.  If  larger  than  6-inch  guns 
are  carried  they  are  generally  placed  within  a  turret. 

Along  the  sides  of  the  ship  (broadside)  and  projecting  through 
portholes  are  other  guns,  and  the  space  in  front  of  these  is  usually 
protected  by  light  armor. 

Having  provided  for  defense  against  shot  and  shell,  provision 
must  be  made  against  attacks  from  the  ram  and  the  torpedo  or  acci- 
dents to  the  hull.  In  cruising  on  an  unknown  coast  reefs  and  shoals 
not  down  on  the  chart  may  be  encountered,  or  in  darkness  or  fog 
collision  with  another  vessel  may  occur.  In  such  an  emergency  the 
double  bottom  comes  into  play.  The  inner  and  the  outer  walls  of 
the  hull  are  from  one  to  three  feet  apart  and  the  space  intervening  is 
divided  into  numerous  little  water-tight  chambers.  Beneath  the  pro- 


45O          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

tective  deck  there  are  several  partitions  running  across  the  ship 
(transverse  bulkheads)  and  usually  one  or  more  partitions  running 
the  whole  length  of  the  ship  (longitudinal  bulkheads).  These  divide 
the  ship  into  numerous  compartments  opening  into  each  other  by 
water-tight  doors  which  can  be  quickly  closed  and  the  ship  kept 
afloat  indefinitely  with  several  compartments  flooded,  if  no  damage  is 
done  to  her  engines.  The  Brooklyn  has  one  hundred  and  forty  such 
compartments.  The  double  bottom  and  water-tight  compartments 
saved  the  famous  Oregon  when,  hurrying  to  the  assistance  of  those 
threatened  by  the  Boxers,  she  struck  an  unmarked  reef  on  the  Chi- 
nese coast.  A  Chinese  cruiser  whose  commanding  officer  had  no 
sympathy  with  the  Boxer  movement  came  to  her  assistance  and  ren- 
dered valuable  aid.  A  Russian  war  ship  shortly  appeared  and  the 
commander  intimated  to  Captain  Wilde  of  the  Oregon  that  he  should 
be  compelled  to  seize  the  Chinese  cruiser.  Captain  Wilde  is  reported 
to  have  said,  "  Well,  I'm  a  bit  embarrassed  just  now  but  our  guns  are 
in  good  condition  and  we've  plenty  of  ammunition."  The  cruiser  re- 
mained unmolested. 

Inside  the  armor  belt  and  reaching  from  the  protective  deck  to 
above  the  surface  of  the  water  extends  a  wall  (cofferdam)  of  cel- 
lulose. This  is  frequently  made  from  corn  pith  and  possesses  the 
peculiar  property  of  swelling  rapidly  when  exposed  to  water,  so  a 
shot  hole  on  the  water  line,  if  not  too  large,  would  be  speedily  closed 
by  the  cellulose. 

The  engines  are  such  as  give  the  greatest  power  with  the  least 
possible  weight,  the  cost  of  fuel  not  counting  for  so  much  as  in  a 
ship  used  for  purely  commercial  purposes.  So  powerful  are  the 
engines  of  a  large  cruiser  that  they  could  drive  the  machinery  to 
furnish  the  electric  light  for  five  cities  of  50,000  inhabitants  each. 
Her  enormous  coal  bunkers  hold  hundreds  of  tons  of  coal  that  she 
may  make  long  voyages  without  being  compelled  to  put  into  port. 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  45  I 

To  recapitulate :  The  protected  cruiser  is  protected  against  the  ram, 
torpedo,  and  reef  by  her  double  bottom  and  belt  of  corn  pith ;  her 
vitals,  liable  to  injury  from  shot,  are  covered  by  the  protective  deck 
and  sheltered  by  the  water;  her  broadside  guns  are  protected  by 
armored  casements;  her  guns  on  deck  by  gun  shields  and  lightweight 
turrets.  Any  of  this  armor  can  be  penetrated  by  the  heaviest  guns 
of  a  battle  ship,  and  the  commerce  destroyer  must  be  able  to  show  a 
clean  pair  of  heels  to  anything  she  cannot  whip.  Dewey's  flagship, 
the  Olympia,  is  a  protected  cruiser. 

The  armored  cruiser  should  be  able  to  brush  away  hostile  com- 
merce destroyers  and  leave  the  route  clear  for  merchantmen  or  to  act 
as  guardian  of  them.  She  is  a  pretty  formidable  fighting  machine, 
and  might  occupy  a  position  in  the  reserve  of  a  fleet  next  the  fight- 
ing line.  In  her  is  found  high  speed  and  greater  displacement, 
heavier  guns,  and  thicker  armor  than,  in  the  protected  cruiser.  In 
addition,  she  has  about  her  water  line  a  belt  of  armor  probably  seven 
and  a  half  feet  wide  and  from  two  to  twelve  inches  thick  extending 
above  and  below  the  water.  This  may  extend  completely  around 
her  or  along  her  sides  far  enough  to  cover  the  most  vital  parts  of  the 
ship.  It  is  this  side  armor  that  gives  her  the  name  "  armored 
cruiser."  The  ammunition  hoists  (elevators),  passing  from  the 
magazines  beneath  the  protective  deck  up  to  the  turrets,  unless 
inclosed  within  a  tower,  are  protected  by  an  armored  tube  from  three 
to  ten  inches  in  thickness.  The  great  quantity  of  coal  that  her 
powerful  engines  require,  and  other  considerations,  have  hitherto 
forbidden  protecting  the  space  between  the  turret  and  protective 
deck  by  armor,  but  the  coal  is  arranged  along  her  sides  so  as  to  give 
some  protection,  and  improvements. in  the  resisting  power  of  armor 
make  it  possible  each  year  to  give  more  protection  fora  given  weight. 
The.  cofferdam  of  cellulose,  made  from  corn  pith,  or  some  similar 
substance,  is  thicker  than  in  the  protected  cruiser  and  the  hull  heavier 


452  THE   MARVELS   OF   MODERN   MECHANISM. 

and  stronger.  She  has  a  double  bottom  like  the  cruiser  of  the 
other  class.  Some  armored  cruisers  are  now  made  larger  than  battle 
ships  and  mount  pretty  heavy  guns, —  in  the  British  navy  9-inch,  in 
the  French  p.^inch,  in  the  German  9.4-inch,  in  the  Spanish  11.2- 
inch,  in  the  United  States  8-inch. 

For  the  purpose  of  giving  a  wider  arc  of  fire  to  guns  mounted  on 
the  broadside  they  are  frequently  placed  within  bay-windowlike 
structures  called  "sponsons."  By  such  an  arrangement  they  can  be 
fired  nearly  ahead  or  astern.  Guns  in  the  bow  of  the  ship  may  look 
out  of  ports  which  have  been  notched,  depressed,  or  cut  in  to  allow  the 
gun  to  be  trained  directly  ahead.  An  arrangement  somewhat  similar 
is  sometimes  made  for  those  along  the  side,  to  give  greater  freedom 
of  motion,  and  ports  of  this  character  are  said  to  be  "recessed." 
The  heavy  guns  are  placed  within  the  turrets. 

The  turret  is  common  to  the  cruiser,  the  monitor,  and  the  battle 
ship,  and  is  a  circular  steel  tower  with  openings  called  portholes 
through  which  guns  project.  It  rests  on  heavy  rollers  and  is  made 
to  turn  by  machinery  so  as  to  point  the  guns  in  any  desired  direc- 
tion. 

The  turret  was  the  strongest  feature  of  the  original  monitor  and 
is  desirable  because  it  places  the  heavy  guns  over  the  center  of  the 
ship,  where  they  least  disturb  the  balance  and  can  be  protected  with 
less  weight  in  armor.  A  gun  in  a  turret  is  equal  to  a  gun  on  either 
broadside  and  all  economy  of  weight  thus  gained  can  be  used  to  give 
better  armor  protection  to  the  ship  or  more  powerful  engines  giving 
higher  speed.  Electricity  is  the  motive  power  most  commonly 
used  to  rotate  the  turrets.  Within  each  turret  are  usually  placed 
two  heavy  guns  which  are  moved  by  machinery  and  fitted  with  a 
peculiarly  effective  mechanical  device  for  sighting.  Between  the  guns, 
looking  through  slits  in  a  projection  in  the  top  of  the  turret  (sight- 
ing hood),  stands  the  operator  who  is  to  aim  the  guns.  In  front  of 


MILITARY   ART  AND    SCIENCE.  453 

him  and  looking  through  two  small  openings  are  two  cross  hair 
telescopic  sights  of  the  best  construction.  By  turning  small  hand 
wheels  he  can  move  these  sights  to  the  right  or  left,  can  elevate  or 
depress  them,  until  they  bear  on  the  target.  As  though  connected 
by  a  chain  of  sympathetic  nerves,  the  guns,  by  a  peculiar  refinement 
of  mechanism,  are  made  to  move  in  the  same  direction  as  the  tele- 
scopes in  the  sighting  hood  and  when  the  cross  hairs  of  a  telescopic 
sight  cover  the  vulnerable  point  in  the  target  the  corresponding  gun 
in  the  turret  is  properly  aimed.  Then  by  means  of  electricity  the 
gun  can  be  instantly  fired.  The  guns  of  the  Victory,  Nelson's  flag- 
ship, were  moved  with  a  handspike,  sighted  by  guess,  and  fired  with 
a  match. 

Electricity,  steam,  or  hydraulic  power  supply  the  force  required 
to  move  the  guns  and  the  machinery  of  the  turret.  Since  powerful 
shells  exploded  underneath  the  turret  would  injure  the  mechanism, 
it  is  desirable  that  something  like  a  gigantic  steel  tube,  or  well,  with 
walls  of  heavy  armor,  reach  from  the  base  of  the  turret  to  the  protec- 
tive deck,  to  protect  the  machinery  and  furnish  a  safe  passageway  for 
the  ammunition  from  the  magazines  below  the  protective  deck  under- 
neath the  water  to  the  guns  above. 

The  barbette  is  a  steel  tower  intended  to  protect  the  heavy 
rollers  on  which  the  base  of  the  turret  rests,  the  machinery  for  turn- 
ing it,  the  guns  within  the  turret,  and  all  the  machinery  connected 
with  them.  The  guns  look  out  over  the  top  of  the  barbette  and,  in 
most  battle  ships,  it  extends  down  to  the  protective  deck.  Within 
this,  like  a  smaller  tube  within  a  larger  one  in  a  spyglass,  is  placed 
the  turret,  mounted  on  heavy  rollers,  with  suitable  machinery  for 
turning  it. 

The  barbettes  show  plainly  in  the  pictures  of  many  battle  ships, 
and  look  like  large  hoops  encircling  the  turrets  at  the  base.  Only 
the  heavy  guns  of  a  ship  are  placed  within  turrets. 


454  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

The  armored  cruiser  must  have  speed  sufficient  to  catch  anything 
but  the  very  fleetest  commerce  destroyers,  and  coal  endurance  suf- 
ficient to  make  long  voyages  from  home.  Cruisers  have  a  high  free- 
board;  that  is,  they  stand  well  out  of  the  water,  mounting  their 
guns  twenty-five  feet  or  more  above  the  water  line,  which  enables 
them  to  be  used  in  rough  weather.  In  this  respect  they  possess  a 
marked  advantage  over  a  monitor  and  a  coast  defense  battle  ship, 
whose  guns  might  sometimes  be  almost  underwater,  or  their  muzzles 
so  far  depressed  that,  if  fired,  their  projectiles  would  strike  the  tops 
of  the  waves  between  them  and  their  target.  On  this  account  a 
naval  officer  has  said,  "  In  a  high  sea  the  Brooklyn  [armored  cruiser] 
could  knock  seven  bells  out  of  the  Oregon  [battle  ship]." 

The  Conning  Tower.  Back  of  the  forward  turret,  and  high 
enough  above  the  deck  to  give  a  good  view  over  all,  is  the  "  conning 
tower,"  an  armored  steel  tower,  pierced  by  narrow  slits  through 
which  the  commanding  officer  watches  the  progress  of  the'  battle  and 
directs  the  movements  of  his  vessel.  This  tower  contains  the  battle 
steering  wheel  and  is  connected  by  electric  bells,  speaking  tubes,  and 
telephones  with  every  portion  of  the  ship  with  which  the  captain 
will  need  to  communicate.  The  conning  tower  should  be  strong 
enough  to  resist  the  ordinary  fire  to  which  it  is  likely  to  be  subjected, 
and  the  electric  wires  communicating  with  it  are,  to  protect  them 
from  shot,  usual-ly  run  through  an  armored  tube  until  they  pass  be- 
neath the  protective  deck.  Above  the  conning  tower  is  usually 
found  a  rather  frail  structure,  not  built  to  resist  shot  and  shell,  called 
the  "chart  house,"  from  which  the-  ship  is  navigated,  except  in 
battle. 

Military  Masts.  Cruisers  of  this  class  carry  what  are  known  as 
"military  masts."  These  are  not  intended  for  the  use  of  sails,  but 
are  hollow,  tapering  steel  structures,  about  which  are  built  one  or 
more  platforms  or  balconies,  where  riflemen  and  machine  guns  are 


MILITARY   ART  AND    SCIENCE.  455 

placed.  The  fire  from  these  is  expected  to  sweep  off  the  men  from 
the  exposed  positions  of  the  hostile  ships.  Cruisers  are  also  furnished 
with  powerful  electric  search  lights,  frequently  of  100,000  candle 
power  or  more,  which  can  be  turned  so  as  to  throw  their  rays  in  any 
direction  and  render  visible  objects  miles  away.  The  electric  search 
light  and  the  small  rapid-firing  gun  are  the  war  ship's  defense  against 
her  small  but  terrible  enemy,  the  torpedo  boat. 

The  armored  cruiser  is  not  expected  to  engage  the  battle  ship 
unless  the  conditions  are  such  as  to  give  her  some  advantage  to  make 
up  for  her  lighter  guns  and  thinner  armor.  If  the  battle  ship  were 
injured  so  that  she  could  not  fire  all  her  guns,  or  if  water  had  en- 
tered some  of  her  compartments  and  thrown  her  off  an  even  keel,  so 
but  few  of  her  guns  could  be  pointed  in  some  particular  direction, 
the  cruiser  might  by  reason  of  her  superior  speed  take  this  position 
and  remain  where,  without  great  damage  to  herself,  she  could  pour 
in  a  destructive  fire  upon  the  disabled  battle  ship.  In  general  the 
cruiser  trusts  to  her  speed  to  keep  away  from  anything  she  cannot 
whip.  The  Brooklyn  and  the  New  York  are  good  types  of  the 
armored  cruiser. 

The  battle  ship  built  to  fight  and  not  to  run  carries  the  most 
powerful  guns  and  the  best  armor  consistent  with  her  displacement 
and  seagoing  requirements.  The  battle  ship  is  usually  larger  than 
the  armored  cruiser,  the  hull  is  stronger  and  perhaps  has  a  triple 
bottom  divided  into  numerous  water-tight  chambers  reaching  up  to 
and  forming  a  shelf  on  which  her  armor  belt  rests.  She  has  a  heavy 
protective  deck,  an  armor  belt  from  seven  to  eight  feet  in  width  and 
from  eight  to  eighteen  inches  in  thickness.  Above  the  protective 
deck  transverse  armored  bulkheads  (partitions)  are  built  fore  and  aft 
to  stop  the  enemy's  shells,  which  might  come  in  at  the  stern  and  bow. 
Along  the  sides,  above  the  armor  belt  connecting  the  bulkheads, 
sufficient  armor  is  placed  to  keep  out  medium  gun  fire ;  that  is,  com- 
mon shells  and  projectiles  from  guns  six  inches  and  smaller. 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

Since  this  armor  must  be  so  heavy  (perhaps  one  third  of  the 
entire  displacement  of  the  ship  is  given  to  it),  it  is  impossible  to  com- 
pletely cover  the  ship  with  it,  and  so  we  find  it  in  the  form  of  a  huge 
steel  box  (redoubt)  extending  far  enough  ahead  and  astern  to  include 
within  its  walls  the  machinery  moving  the  turrets,  the  ammunition 
hoists,  and  the  most  important  parts  of  the  ship  above  the  armored 
deck.  It  is  expected  that  considerable  portions  of  the  bow  and 
stern  above  the  protective  deck  may  and  probably  will  be  shot  away 
in  action,  but  this  might  be  done  without  much  damage  or  loss  of  life 
and  the  battle  ship  still  be  able  to  maintain  a  most  formidable  resist- 
ance. The  destruction  of  the  unarmored  bow  might  impede  the  speed 
of  the  ship  and  cause  her  to  steer  badly,  and  water  coming  in  here  or 
at  the  stern  might  put  the  battle  ship  on  an  uneven  keel,  perhaps  to 
such  an  extent  that  she  would  be  troubled  to  bring  her  guns  to  bear 
on  an  enemy.  In  such  positions  she  would  present  an  inviting  target 
for  the  attack  of  the  torpedo  boat  or  the  ram. 

The  batteries  of  our  battle  ships  are  known  as  primary  and 
secondary.  In  the  primary  battery  are  the  large  guns  from  8-inch 
to  13-inch,  with  which  she  will  attack  the  thick  armor  over  the  vitals 
of  her  opponents  and  the  opposing  heavy  guns.  The  primary  bat- 
tery must  be  supplemented  by  smaller  rapid-fire  guns  from  4-inch  to 
8-inch  and  with  these  she  will  attack  the  unarmored  or  thinly  armored 
portions  of  the  opposing  ship  and  the  portholes  through  which  the 
heavy  guns  look  out. 

The  secondary  battery  is  made  up  of  smaller  rapid-fire  guns, 
such  as  Maxim,  Nordenfeldt,  Hotchkiss,  Driggs-Schroeder,  Colt,  or 
Gatling,  whose  projectiles  range  in  size  from  that  of  a  rifle  ball  up  to  a 
12-pounder,  and  fire  from  30  shots  a  minute  for  the  former  to  400  or 
1 200  shots  a  minute  for  the  small  machine  guns.  With  these  she 
sweeps  away  men  from  the  exposed  positions  on  the  hostile  deck  and 
defends  herself  when  attacked  by  the  torpedo  boat. 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  457 

The  battle  ship  of  to-day  represents  a  compromise  of  conflicting 
requirements.  Since  the  advent  of  horizontal  shell  fire,  there  has 
been  a  continuous  struggle  between  the  shipbuilder  and  the  gun 
maker  until  the  modern  battle  ship  is  a  huge  floating  mass  of  com- 
plicated machinery.  Besides  the  engines  used  to  propel  her  she  may 
have  a  hundred  others.  Separate  engines  steer  the  ship,  hoist  the 
boats,  raise  the  anchors,  turn  the  dynamos,  pump  water,  compress 
air,  furnish  power  for  the  machine  shop,  hoist  ammunition,  move 
guns,  turn  turrets,  ventilate  the  ship,  and  even  distill  water  for  the 
use  of  the  engines  and  crew,  for  drinking  water  is  no  longer  carried 
in  water  casks ;  in  a  word  engines  do  what  was  formerly  done  by 
hand  labor  and  do  it  better.  It  is  no  longer  sufficient  for  the  com- 
manding officer  to  be  merely  a  good  sailor  and  a  stout  fighter. 
Brains  and  technical  training  of  a  high  order  are  necessary  to  com- 
mand this  intricate  mass  of  machinery,  containing  more  than  a  mile 
of  steel  tubing,  with  boilers  giving  an  acre  of  heating  surface.  The 
ship,  if  used  as  a  ram,  could  strike  a  blow  that  would  lift  200,000 
tons  a  foot  high.  The  skill  required  has  dignified  subordinate  posi- 
tions until  we  find  warrant  machinists  paid  $1200  per  year,  and  chief 
gunners,  chief  carpenters,  chief  boatswains  as  high  as  $1960  per  year. 
Small  wonder  that  the  battle  ship  has  the  confidence  of  her  designers. 

The  "  Monitor,"  a  boat  of  peculiar  construction  built  by  John 
Ericsson,  has  come  to  designate  a  type.  The  type  characteristics 
are  the  turrets  mounting  heavy  guns,  low  sides  (free  board),  thick 
armor,  low  speed,  and  light  draft.  The  spectacular  appearance  of 
the  first  Monitor  at  a  critical  moment  seems  to  have  given  the  type  a 
higher  value  in  the  eyes  of  most  Americans  than  its  abilities  justify. 
It  is  a  most  useful  vessel  within  its  sphere,  but  that  sphere  is  limited. 
As  harbor  defense  boats  they  can  render  excellent  service.  Secre- 
tary Long  has  said,  "  There  is  no  advantage  to  be  gained  by  build- 
ing ships  of  this  description.  Such  a  vessel  cannot  attain  to  high 


458  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN   MECHANISM. 

speed.  It  can  neither  overtake  nor  escape  from  a  battle  ship.  Its 
comparative  smallness  of  target,  usually  mentioned  as  one  of  its  chief 
advantages,  is  apparent  rather  than  real,  for  that  feature  of  the  bat- 
tle ship  which  changes  the  size  of  the  target,  although  vulnerable,  is 
not  indispensable  to  the  safety  or  fighting  efficiency  of  the  vessel. 
The  chief  defect  to  be  found  is  the  serious  disadvantage  under  which 
its  guns  are  fought  in  any  but  the  smoothest  water." 

Originally,  the  monitors  were  planned  to  carry  only  heavy  guns, 
but  the  appearance  of  the  torpedo  boat  compelled  the  building  of  a 
superstructure  to  carry  search  lights  and  rapid-fire  guns.  Of  course 
guns  in  this  position  are  as  much  exposed  on  the  monitor  as  on  any 
type  of  ship. 

The  Idea  of  Submarine  Attack  is  not  New.  In  the  War  of  the 
Revolution  a  submarine  boat  attacked  a  British  man-of-war  in  New 
York  harbor,  and  in  the  War  of  1812  Robert  Fulton  devised  and  ad- 
vocated the  use  of  the  spar  torpedo  which  a  half  century  later  men 
like  Lieutenant  Gushing  used  with  terrible  effect. 

In  the  Civil  War  the  Torpedo  Boat  Played  a  Prominent  Part. 
It  appeared  as  a  small  boat  with  a  spar  in  the  bow  to  which  was  at- 
tached a  torpedo  to  be  exploded  on  contact.  One  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful attacks  was  on  the  United  States  ship  Minnesota.  A  small 
launch  fitted  with  a  long  spar  at  her  bow,  to  which  was  attached  the 
torpedo  arranged  to  explode  upon  contact,  steamed,  in  the  darkness 
of  night,  through  the  blockading  fleet  without  its  identity  being  dis- 
covered, although  frequently  challenged  by  lookouts.  The  Minnesota 
was  found,  the  torpedo  was  lowered,  the  spar  run  out,  and  a  dash 
made  for  her  side.  Although  the  torpedo  was  loaded  only  with  gun- 
powder, the  explosion  was  terrific,  and  resulted  in  such  severe  damage 
to  the  Minnesota  that  she  was  compelled  to  be  docked.  The  torpedo 
boat  escaped  in  safety. 

It  was  in  a  simillar  boat  and  with  a  spar  torpedo,  that  Lieutenant 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  459 

Gushing,  of  the  United  States  navy,  made  his  successful  attack  upon 
the  Confederate  ironclad  Albemarle.  In  the  absence  of  the  search 
light  and  the  small  rapid-fire  gun,  such  boats  in  the  hands  of  fearless 
men  were  a  dreaded  and  dangerous  enemy  on  dark  foggy  nights. 

Late  in  the  sixties  the  Whitehead  torpedo  was  introduced  and 
special  boats  designed  and  armed  with  it.  They  were  made  small, 
for  the  safety  of  the  boat  depended  upon  not  being  discovered. 
Heavy  guns  cannot  be  moved  quickly  and  the  gun  maker  replied  to 
the  torpedo  boat's  challenge  with  the  small  rapid-fire  gun  and  the 
machine  gun,  the  powder  maker  contributed  smokeless  powder,  and 
the  electrician  produced  the  search  light.  Under  favorable  circum- 
stances the  torpedo  has  an  effective  range  up  to  800  yards,  and  the 
boat  must  get  at  least  that  close  before  being  discovered  and  de- 
stroyed. Once  discovered  she  will  be  exposed  to  a  veritable  -shower 
of  small  projectiles.  Her  existence  depends  on  making  this  ex- 
posure as  short  as  possible,  and  everything  has  been  sacrificed  to  ex- 
treme speed  until  the  boat  is  a  mere  steel  shell  driven  by  engines  on 
which  the  best  machinists  have  exhausted  their  ingenuity.  To 
obtain  speed  the  size  has  been  increased  until  the  very  object  for 
which  it  was  originally  intended  may  have  been  defeated.  The  high 
speed  at  which  they  move  throws  up  a  bow  wave  that  is  visible  even 
in  a  dark  night.  English  boats  driven  by  the  Parsons  steam  turbine 
have  made  more  than  forty  miles  an  hour. 

The  Torpedo  Boat  Destroyer,  as  its  name  suggests,  is  a  larger 
boat,  built  to  afford  protection  against  hostile  torpedo  boats.  There 
is  much  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  merit  of  torpedo  attack.  No 
vessel  has  yet,  when  in  motion  at  sea,  been  destroyed  by  the  torpedo 
and  torpedo  boats  can  do  little  against  the  battle  ship  whose  second- 
ary battery  is  in  good  shape.  The  torpedo  boat's  time  in  battle  will 
come  toward  the  close  of  the  action,  when  the  ships  are  partially  dis- 
abled, the  crews  tired,  and  the  rapid-fire  battery  dismounted  or 


460  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

silenced;   then,  after  a  ship  is  disabled,  perhaps  on  uneven  keel,  she 
will  fall  an  easy  prey  to  the  torpedo  boat. 

The  Torpedo  Boat  has  a  very  real  Influence  upon  Naval  "War- 
fare. The  knowledge  that  a  harbor  is  defended  by  such  a  fleet  and 
the  danger  that  the  floating  batteries  costing  millions  of  dollars  will 
be  destroyed  by  the  insignificant  yet  terrible  little  enemy  will  make 
an  attacking  squadron  cautious.  The  constant  strain  upon  the 
nerves  in  keeping  a  lookout  and  the  very  fear  that  torpedo  boats 
incite  well  repay  their  construction,  should  they  render  no  further 
service. 

"  She's  a  floating  boiler  crammed  with  fire  and  steam, 

A  dainty  toy,  with  works  just  like  a  watch; 
A  weaving,  working  basketful  of  tricks  — 
A  pent  volcano  stoppered  at  top  notch. 
She  is  Death  and  swift  Destruction  in  a  case 

(Not  the  Unseen,  but  the  Awful  —  plain  in  sight). 
The  Dread  that  must  be  halted  when  afar; 
She's  a  concentrated,  fragile  form  of  Might; 
She's  a  daring,  vicious  thing 
With  a  rending  deadly  sting  — 
And  she  asks  no  odds    nor  quarter  in  the  fight  !  " 

Automobile  Torpedoes.  The  rapid-fire  gun  and  later  the  de- 
velopment of  the  electric  search  light  and  smokeless  powder  rendered 
the  spar  obsolete  and  inventive  talent  turned  itself  to  producing  a 
torpedo  that  could  be  used  at  longer  range. 

The  Whitehead,  the  one  now  most  generally  used,  appeared  in 
crude  form  in  1868.  As  perfected  it  is  a  long  fish-shaped  shell  hav- 
ing three  compartments.  The  first  chamber,  called  the  warhead,  is 
detachable  and  contains  the  explosive  charge  and  the  means  of  ex- 
ploding it.  The  warhead  is  kept  in  the  ammunition  magazine  and 
attached  to  the  torpedo  only  when  ready  for  action.  Wet  gun  cot- 
ton is  the  explosive  usually  chosen  because  it  is  more  powerful  than 
most  and  one  of  the  safest.  The  wet  gun  cotton  in  a  warhead  has 
been  known  to  be  struck  in  action  by  a  shell  without  exploding.  It 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  461 

is  exploded  by  the  detonation  of  another  explosive,  a  fulminate  of 
mercury  primer  igniting  a  small  quantity  of  dry  gun  cotton  being 
the  means  usually  employed.  The  second  chamber  contains  the 
compressed  air  cylinder,  which  furnishes  the  motive  power  to  turn 
the  propeller,  and  the  third  chamber  the  machinery  for  turning  the 
screw  propeller  at  the  stern.  Modern  torpedoes  are  from  14  inches 
to  1 8  inches  in  diameter,  from  11  feet  to  18  feet  long,  are  charged 
with  120  pounds  to  220  pounds  of  wet  gun  cotton,  and  can  run 
about  800  yards,  the  greater  part  of  the  distance  at  a  3O-knot  rate. 
A  torpedo  is  thrown  from  a  torpedo  tube  by  a  light  charge  of  gun- 
powder, and  the  machinery  within  it  being  set  in  motion  it  at  once 
begins  to  propel  itself,  hence  the  name  automobile.  Much  skill  is  re- 
quired in  the  use  of  the  torpedo.  If  fired  at  a  target  which  is  in 
motion  allowance  must  be  made  for  the  changed  position  of  the  target 
by  the  time  the  torpedo  reaches  it  and  the  "  acquired  motion"  of 
the  boat  from  which  the  torpedo  is  fired  must  be  considered.  The 
modern  torpedo  is  an  intricate  piece  of  machinery  and  costs  complete 
about  $3100. 

The  Howell  torpedo  is  the  invention  of  an  American  and  differs 
from  the  Whitehead  chiefly  in  having  within  it  a  heavy  balance 
wheel  in  place  of  the  compressed  air  motor.  Before  launching,  the 
wheel  is  spun  up  to  a  high  speed  and  its  momentum  is  employed  to 
drive  the  torpedo's  screw  propeller. 

Submarine  boats,  or  the  plans  for  them,  first  appeared  about  400 
years  ago.  William  Bourne  of  England  in  1604  designed  one  which 
was  never  built.  A  German,  Cornelius  Van  Drebbel,  tried  one  on 
the  Thames  in  1624  in  the  presence  of  King  James  I.  The  boat 
was  moved  by  oars  passing  through  the  sides,  the  openings  being 
made  water-tight  by  leather  stuffing  boxes.  It  is  said  that  the  boat 
could  be  completely  submerged  and  the  air  ''kept  pure  by  means  of 
liquids."  During  the  next  hundred  years  a  few  attempts  were  made, 


462  THE   MARVELS   OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

but  these  resulted  frequently  in  the  loss  of  life  of  the  inventor.  The 
first  American  submarine  boat  dates  back  to  the  time  of  David 
Bushnell  of  Saybrook,  Connecticut,  who  in  1775  designed  and  made 
a  turtle-shaped  cask  about  7^  feet  in  diameter,  large  enough  to  con- 
tain a  man  and  air  to  sustain  him  for  30  minutes.  The  boat  was  en- 
tered by  a  water-tight  trap  door  at  the  top  and  carried  a  heavy  lead 
weight  at  the  bottom  which  could  be  detached  by  the  operator  and 
allow  the  boat  to  come  to  the  surface  quickly.  It  was  steered  by  a 
small  rudder  and  propelled  by  a  screw  propeller  turned  by.  hand. 
This  was  apparently  the  first  appearance  of  the  screw  propeller  in 
navigation.  Its  course  was  directed  by  a  compass,  and  a  water  gauge 
showed  the  depth  of  submersion.  A  bottle  containing  phosphorus 
furnished  the  light  by  which  to  read  the  compass  and  water  gauge. 
Water  was  admitted  into  compartments  to  sink  the  cask  to  the  re- 
quired depth  and  expelled  by  two  force  pumps.  The  torpedo  con- 
sisted of  a  cask  containing  the  clockwork  and  150  pounds  of  gun- 
powder attached  by  a  short  rope  to  a  wood  screw  which  was  to  be 
screwed  into  the  hull  of  the  ship  to  be  destroyed.  In  this  boat  an 
officer  named  Lee  in  1776  made  an  attack  on  a  British  5<D-gun  ship 
near  Governor's  Island  in  New  York  harbor,  but  the  wood  screw 
striking  a  bolt  in  the  hull  it  failed  to  fix  the  torpedo.  The  operator 
was  forced  to  come  to  the  surface  and  abandon  his  torpedo,  which 
later  exploded,  causing  little  damage  but  much  alarm.  In  1801 
Robert  Fulton  designed  and  operated  in  Brest  harbor,  France,  a  sub- 
marine boat  in  which  he  remained  submerged  for  one  hour.  In  1814 
he  suggested  the  form  of  spar  torpedo  which  was  used  in  the 
American  Civil  War.  That  contest  brought  out  the  famous  Con- 
federate "  cigar  boat,"  the  immediate  prototype  of  the  Holland. 
She  was  propelled  by  machinery,  driven  by  hand,  and  caused  to  dive 
or  ascend  by  means  of  horizontal  rudders  on  her  sides.  Although  in 
her  experiments  she  sank  four  times,  each  time  with  the  loss  of  her 


MILITARY  ART  AND   SCIENCE.  463 

entire  crew,  it  was  never  difficult  to  find  adventurous  spirits  to  man 
her.  The  fifth  and  last  experiment  resulted  in  the  sinking  of  the 
United  States  war  ship  Housatonic.  The  "cigar  boat"  also  disap- 
peared and  with  her  the  greater  part  of  her  crew. 

In  1886  Nordenfeldt  brought  forward  in  Stockholm  a  boat  driven 
by  steam  power  which  could  dive  for  five  minutes  at  a  time.  Lieu- 
tenant Peral  of  the  Spanish  navy  in  1888  presented  for  trial  a  boat 
named  after  him.  Storage  batteries  furnished  the  motive  power. 
France  later  produced  submarine  boats,  but  all  of  these  lose  their 
sense  of  direction  when  the  course  is  changed  under  water  and  are 
compelled  to  come  to  the  surface  to  get  new  bearings. 

Experiments  with  submarine  boats  having  by  1887  attracted  con- 
siderable attention,  the  United  States  navy  issued  a  circular  calling 
for  plans  of  a  submarine  boat  that  would  show  a  speed  of  fifteen 
knots  on  the  surface,  eight  knots  when  submerged,  and  capable  of 
running  thirty  hours  on  the  surface  and  two  hours  submerged.  The 
boat  was  required  to  turn  within  four  times  her  length  and  to  sink  in 
thirty  seconds.  Several  boats  were  presented  for  trial  in  response  to 
the  circular. 

It  remained  for  John  P.  Holland,  an  American  inventor,  to  de- 
sign the  first  satisfactorily  working  submarine  boat.  It  (the  Holland) 
is  55  feet  long,  10^  feet  in  width,  and  displaces  75  tons.  The  hull 
is  cigar-shaped  and  made  of  steel.  It  is  double,  with  numerous 
compartments  in  which  are  stored  gasoline  for  fuel,  and  others,  called 
trimming  tanks,  into  which  water  can  be  admitted  through  valves. 
The  water  is  used  as  ballast  and  can  be  blown  out  by  compressed  air. 
When  moving  on  the  surface  the  power  is  furnished  by  a  gasoline 
engine;  when  submerged,  by  storage  batteries.  The  engine  and  the 
dynamo  are  each  attached  to  a  common  shaft  operating  a  screw  pro- 
peller. Storage  batteries  weighing  21  tons  are  located  near  the 
middle  of  the  ship  well  toward  the  keel  and  so  far  below  the  center 


464 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


THE  "  HOLLAND"  CRUISING. 


DIVING. 


~ 


JUST  DISAPPEARING. 


COMING  UP. 


of  buoyancy  that  they  aid  in 
keeping  her  right  side  up. 
With  all  her  crew  and  stores 
aboard  the  boat  has  only  her 
turret  and  about  18  inches  of 
the  hull  above  the  water.  She 
then  has  an  excess  of  buoy- 
ancy of  about  250  pounds  and 
water  is  admitted  or  blown 
out  of  her  trimming  tanks  to 
keep  her  buoyancy  at  this 
point.  In  this  condition  the 
influence  of  her  horizontal 
rudders  will  cause  her  to  dive 
or  to  ascend.  If  when  sub- 
merged an  accident  should 
occur  to  her  propelling  ma- 
chinery she  would  rise  to  the 
surface. 

The  gasoline  engine  has  45 
horse  power  and  the  storage 
tanks  hold  five  tons  of  gaso- 
line for  fuel.  The  engine  can 
run  the  dynamo  and  charge 
the  storage  battery  in  eight 
or  ten  hours,  and  the  battery 
will  furnish  50  horse  power 
for  six  hours,  enough  to  en- 
able the  boat  to  run  sub- 
merged about  fifty  miles. 
The  boat  contains  air  pumps 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  465 

for  supplying  compressed  air  for  machinery,  guns,  and  crew.  When 
submerged  she  uses  the  exhaust  from  the  steering  engines  to  keep 
good  the  atmosphere  breathed  by  the  crew.  In  her  bow  is  a  sub- 
merged torpedo  tube  from  which  can  be  thrown  the  regular  1 8-inch 
Whitehead  torpedo  (see  Whitehead  torpedo  in  text).  She  carries  in 
addition  two  pneumatic  guns;  one  forward,  one  astern.  The  one 
astern  will  propel  under  water  with  an  energy  of  750  tons  a  shell  con- 
taining 100  pounds  of  dynamite.  The  gun  forward  can  fire  similar 
shells  through  the  air  and  has  a  range  of  1800  yards.  To  use  the 
forward  gun  the  boat  would  need  to  go  to  the  surface  but  remain 
only  an  instant,  for  the  recoil  from  the  gun  when  fired  would  force 
the  boat  under  water  and  out  of  reach  of  the  enemy's  projectiles. 
The  pneumatic  guns  have  a  bore  of  8^4  inches  and  can  be  fired  by 
powder  and  air,  or  air  alone  may  be  used.  One  pilot,  one  electri- 
cian, one  engineer,  and  two  torpedo  experts  form  the  crew.  She  has 
a  telescopic  turret  that  can  be  projected  three  feet  above  the  water 
in  a  second  or  two,  or,  remaining  wholly  under  water,  a  tube  can  be 
thrust  up  containing  a  camera  obscura  which  will  reflect  upon  a  white 
sheet  of  paper  in  the  turret  a  picture  of  the  harbor  or  sea  for  miles. 

Several  trials  were  given  the  Holland  and  although  at  the  first 
she  showed  considerable  merit,  yet  it  was  not  until  November  9, 
1899,  that  the  board  reported  "every  requirement  fulfilled,"  and 
said,  "The  Holland  is  a  successful  and  veritable  submarine  torpedo 
boat,  capable  of  making  a  veritable  attack  upon  an  enemy  unseen 
and  undetectable."  There  is  no  reason  to  consider  the  submarine 
boat  as  unsafe.  Indeed,  in  war  it  has  many  more  chances  than  a 
torpedo  boat  and  it  can  be  made  almost  absolutely  safe.  Its  crown- 
ing virtue  is  that  it  makes  blockading  almost  impossible.  In  the 
maneuvers  of  the  American  squadron  off  Newport,  she  showed  that 
she  possesses  about  all  the  good  qualities  ever  claimed  for  her. 

In  view  of  the  successful  performances  of  the  Holland,  it  is  inter- 


466  THE    MARVELS   OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

esting  to  read  that  a  European  of  high  authority  said  in  1898,  "  The 
Americans,  in  attempting  to  solve  at  one  blow  all  the  problems  in- 
volved in  a  submarine  torpedo  boat,  have  accumulated  too  many 
difficulties." 

As  a  harbor  defense  boat,  the  fear  she  would  inspire  in  a  block- 
ading squadron  would  alone  be  worth  a  whole  fleet  of  monitors. 
After  viewing  her  successful  performances  a  naval  officer  declared 
that  she  had  shown  "the  worse  than  worthlessness  of  the  present 
above  water  torpedo  system,  its  methods,  theories,  and  appliances, 
the  need  of  a  deliverance  from  its  absurdities  and  from  the  fool's  par- 
adise of  its  false  security." 

"  She  is  the  only  kind  of  an  inexpensive  draft  that  can  move  up 
to  a  battle  ship  in  daylight  in  the  face  of  her  fire  and  in  spite  of  her 
force  of  defenders  and  force  the  ship  to  move  off  or  receive  a  torpedo. 
An  inexpensive  boat  with  a  crew  of  five  that  can  within  a  limited 
field  prevent  operations  attempted  by  an  expensive  battle  ship  with 
a  crew  of  some  hundreds  surely  has  a  tactical  place  in  naval  warfare." 
An  officer  says  of  her,  "When  a  shot  or  two  through  her  stack 
intimated  that  the  enemy  were  getting  her  range,  she  would  out  fires, 
douse  stack,  seal  up,  head  so  as  to  intercept  the  ship's'course,  dive, 
and  make  a  run  at  five  fathoms  below  the  surface  of  about  500  yards, 
and  then  rise  till  the  top  of  her  turret  or  that  of  her  camera-lucida 
tube  above  water  gave  a  view  of  the  enemy.  Gun  fire  would  be 
employed  against  her,  but  the  chances  of  its  proving  effective  are 
hardly  worth  considering,  when  it  is  remembered  that  she  would  pre- 
sent as  a  target  only  a  few  square  inches  of  armored  turret  or  the  top 
of  her  camera-lucida  tube  for  a  few  seconds  at  a  time,  in  unexpected 
and  impossible-to-predict  places.  The  small  chance  of  disaster^ due 
to  gun  fire  would  certainly  not  be  enough  to  deter,  when  escaping,  it 
would  mean  the  defeat  of  500  men  in  an  expensive  battle  ship  by 
five  men  in  an  inexpensive  boat.  When  the  boat  arrived  within  300 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  467 

yards  of  the  ship,  she  would  make  her  final  dive,  deliver  her  bow 
torpedo  from  her  axial  tube,  pass  under  the  ship  if  her  direction  were 
good  enough  —  and  at  such  close  quarters  she  could  hardly  miss  — 
and  as  the  light  through  the  water  gave  notice  that  the  ship  were 
passed,  the  stern  torpedo  would  be  delivered  against  the  ship's  hull. 
The  attack  could  always  be  avoided  by  the  ship's  steaming  away  at 
speed,  for  the  boat  could  not  chase  submerged  for  any  length  of 
time  faster  than  eight  or  nine  knots,  though  she  could  make  short 
runs  at  twelve ;  but  if  the  boat  chased  the  ship  away  she  could  be 
considered  to  have  given  a  good  account  of  herself." 

Gunpowder.  The  claims  of  Roger  Bacon,  1267,  and  Bartholdus 
Schwartz,  1320,  to  the  invention  of  gunpowder,  are  not  considered 
well  founded.  The  origin  of  gunpowder  is  lost  in  the  mists  of 
antiquity,  but  a  prevailing  belief  seems  to  ascribe  its  birthplace  to 
Southern  China  or  Northern  India,  where  saltpeter  is  found  in  large 
quantities.  The  Chinese  used  it  to  propel  rockets  two  thousand 
years  ago.  The  exact  formula,  saltpeter  75,  charcoal  15,  sulphur  IO, 
was  known  to  the  Arab  chemists  of  the  eighth  century. 

The  action  of  gunpowder  is  based  on  the  well  known  laws  of 
combustion,  the  usual  manifestations  of  which  are  heat,  light,  and 
gas.  A  piece  of  wood  will  burn  more  rapidly  if  reduced  to  shavings, 
because  oxygen,  which  constitutes  about  one  fifth  of  the  atmosphere, 
is  necessary  to  combustion,  and  more  of  it  is  brought  into  contact 
with  the  shavings  than  if  the  wood  be  solid.  An  explosion  is  a  rapid 
combustion ;  a  detonation  is  a  rapid  explosion.  The  phenomena  of 
an  explosion,  like  a  combustion,  are  heat,  light,  and  gas.  Heat  ap- 
plied to  water  converts  it  into  steam,  causing  it  to  occupy  1700  times 
its  former  space.  Man  utilizes  this  law  and  calls  the  result  power. 
The  heat  in  an  explosion  acts  upon  the  particles  of  gas  in  the  same 
way  as  in  steam  causing  them  to  occupy  still  more  space.  An  ex- 
plosive is  a  substance  or  a  mixture  of  substances  which  when  heated, 


468  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

struck,  or  subjected  to  the  shock  of  an  explosion  results  in  the  ex- 
tremely rapid  formation  of  great  quantities 'of  highly  heated  gases. 
That  explosive  is  the  most  powerful  which  will  produce  the  greatest 
volume  of  gas  at  the  highest  temperature  in  the  shortest  time.  The 
definitions  of  mixture  and  compound  are  familiar. 

Mixture  and  Compound.  The  ingredients  of  explosive  mixtures 
are  mixed  mechanically  and  may  be  separated  by  mechanical  means. 
Black  powder  is  a  mixture.  The  ingredients  of  explosive  compounds 
are  united  chemically  and  can  be  separated  only  by  chemical  means. 
Smokeless  powder  is  a  compound.  Black  powder  is  made  by  mechan- 
ically mixing  in  the  proper  proportions  saltpeter,  sulphur,  and  char- 
coal. With  every  explosive  it  is  necessary  to  have  something  to 
burn  (a  combustible)  and  something  to  feed  the  flame  with  great 
quantities  of  oxygen  (an  oxidizer).  The  charcoal  is  the  combustible 
and  the  saltpeter  the  oxidizer.  The  sulphur  makes  the  mixture  burn 
at  a  lower  temperature.  The  proportions  of  the  ingredients  vary 
with  the  purpose  for  which  the  powder  is  to  be  used.  These  are 
separately  pulverized,  carefully  weighed,  and  then  placed  within  a 
gun-metal  or  copper  barrel  (drum)  having  an  axle  with  arms.  The 
barrel  is  turned  in  one  direction  and  the  arms  revolve  in  the  other. 
The  charge  is  thoroughly  mixed  for  five  minutes.  It  is  next  slightly 
moistened  with  water  and  ground  under  heavy  rollers.  This  is  called 
"milling"  and  the  product  called  "  mill  cake."  It  is  done  to  bring 
all  the  ingredients  into  the  closest  possible  union  with  each  other. 
Water  is  put  in  to  prevent  dust,  to  aid  the  mixing,  and  to  reduce  the 
effects  of  a  possible  explosion.  The  mill  cake  is  then  made  into 
powder  meal  by  being  passed  through  two  pairs  of  toothed  rollers. 
The  powder  meal  is  then  placed  in  a  press  box,  where  it  is  made  into 
hard  slabs  called  "  press  cake." 

Processes.  Milling  and  pressing  are  the  most  important  processes, 
for  to  burn  quickly  the  ingredients  must  be  thoroughly  mixed  and 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  469 

brought  together  as  closely  as  possible.  To  burn  uniformly  it  must 
have  a  uniform  density,  and  milling  and  pressing  bring  the  particles 
into  closer  union  and  regulate  the  density.  Unless  it  burns  uniformly 
it  will  not  shoot  accurately.  The  press  cake  is  then  placed  in  the 
granulating  machine,  consisting  of  toothed  rollers  of  varying  size 
which  break  it  into  grains  of  the  size  required.  The  powder  is  next 
passed  through  revolving  reels  covered  with  canvas  cloth,  where  the 
dust  is  removed.  It  is  then  ready  for  glazing,  which  is  done  by 
placing  100  pounds  of  powder  with  y2  ounce  of  graphite  in  an  oaken 
barrel  and  revolving  rapidly  for  six  hours.  This  gives  it  a  high  gloss 
and  makes  it  less  likely  to  absorb  moisture  from  the  air. 

Good  black  powder  should  be  hard,  of  a  uniform  color  without 
any  specks  of  saltpeter  or  sulphur,  free  from  dust,  and  should  not 
soil  the  hands.  The  size  of  the  grains  of  powder  depends  upon  the 
caliber  of  the  gun  in  which  it  is  to  be  used,  varying  from  the  finest 
grains  for  small  pistols,  to  grains  an  inch  or  more  in  diameter  for 
heavy  cannon.  With  ordinary  cannon  powder  it  has  been  found  that 
seven  eighths  of  the  entire  charge  is  consumed  before  the  shot  passes 
over  one  third  the  length  of  the  bore.  This  action  causes  excessive 
pressure  at  or  near  the  breech  of  the  gun  and  very  little  at  the  muz- 
zle. For  the  purpose  of  reducing  the  initial  strain  and  getting  a 
more  progressive  pressure,  cannon  powder  is  pressed  into  grains  of 
varying  shapes ;  a  six-sided  figure  with  holes  through  the  mass  seems 
to  give  the  best  results. 

Brown  powder,  also  called  from  its  color  "  cocoa  powder,"  is  a 
variation  from  black  powder,  consisting  in  general  of  a  mixture  of 
about  80  parts  saltpeter,  15  parts  of  wood,  not  wholly  charred,  and  a 
little  sulphur,  and  sometimes  about  4  per  cent,  of  sugar  is  included. 
Brown  powder  proved  superior  to  black  powder  for  guns  of  large  cal- 
iber; which  superiority  was  supposed  to  be  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
charred  wood  contained  more  oxygen  than  the  charcoal,  and  so  pro- 


470         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

duced  a  greater  volume  of  powder  gas,  aided  by  the  carbon,  hydro- 
gen, and  oxygen  present  in  the  sugar. 

Such  is  black  or  brown  gunpowder,  and  with  comparatively 
slight  changes  it  has  fought  the  battles  of  centuries.  Used  in  the 
musket  of  one  hundred  years  ago  it  gave  the  soldier  a  hard  "  kick," 
threw  the  bullet  only  a  moderate  distance,  and  that  in  a  curve  that 
differed  greatly  from  a  straight  line.  Its  materials  were  not  all  con- 
verted into  gas,  a  large  portion  being  left  to  foul  his  gun  and  render 
his  shooting  inaccurate,  while  the  puff  of  black  smoke  revealed  his 
position  to  the  enemy.  Batteries  in  action  have  been  enveloped  in 
such  dense  smoke  that  they  have  been  captured  by  the  bayonet 
charge  of  the  enemy  approaching  unseen.  Some  things  may  be  said 
in  its  favor.  Its  behavior  is  pretty  uniform  and  its  shooting  on  this 
account  accurate.  Its  gases  also  are  not  very  destructive  to  the  bore 
of  the  gun. 

The  cannon  charge  of  black  powder  was  bulky,  weighing  one 
half  as  much  as  the  projectile.  Seeking  to  find  a  substitute  that 
should  occupy  less  space  in  the  powder  chamber  and  yet  give  the 
required  velocity,  the  chemist  eliminated  nearly  all  those  parts  of  the 
charge  not  actually  used,  and  converted  the  remainder  almost  wholly 
into  gas.  He  fairly  stumbled  upon  smokelessness  and  barely  recog- 
nized then  the  feature  that  is  now  a  much  desired  object.  The  gain 
was  evident.  The  new  charge  weighed  less,  it  took  up  less  space  in 
the  cannon,  permitted  the  saving  of  weight  at  the  breech,  where  the 
gun  was  heaviest,  for  instead  of  giving  a  sudden  blow  to  the  pro- 
jectile, as  did  black  powder,  it  pushed  it  not  only  the  whole  length  of 
the  gun  but  even  after  it  had  left  the  muzzle.  The  metal  saved  at 
the  breech  of  the  cannon  was  added  to  the  muzzle  and  gave  a  taper 
glistening  tube  one  third  longer,  throwing  its  projectile  with  less 
strain,  faster,  farther,  in  a  flatter  curve,  with  more  energy  and 
greater  penetration.  The  smokeless  feature  gave  the  gunner  a  bet- 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  471 

ter  chance  to  aim  and  the  torpedo  boat  can  no  longer  steal  up  cov- 
ered by  the  smoke  of  battle. 

Smokeless  Powder.  "  As  to  the  use  of  smokeless  powder  in  the 
Springfield  .45  caliber  rifle  the  fact  is  known  that  its  pressures  run 
very  high  in  small  arms,  frequently  exceeding  40,000  pounds  per 
square  inch  in  our  army  magazine  rifle.  It  is  only  by  dint  of 
supreme  effort,  and  after  years  of  careful  and  exhaustive  experi- 
ments, that  a  smokeless  powder  has  at  last  been  found  suitable  for 
the  .45  caliber  Springfield  rifle ;  one  which  may  not  overtax  a  breech 
mechanism  calculated  originally  to  resist  a  pressure  of  not  more  than 
24,000  pounds  per  square  inch.  An  increase  of  the  black  powder 
charge  (70  grains)  now  used,  by  about  10  grains,  will  exceed  the 
safety  limit  in  the  Springfield,  although  the  pressure  due  to  the  use 
of  black  powder  in  this  arm  is  moderate  and  uniform.  We  use  this 
word  "  uniform"  advisedly,  as  it  is  a  well  established  fact  that  the 
pressure  due  to  the  use  of  smokeless  powder  in  small  arm  rifles 
under  certain  and  not  very  abnormal  circumstances,  are  quite  varia- 
ble ;  in  fact,  we  may  say  that  at  times  they  are  treacherously  incon- 
sistent, and  demand  an  exceedingly  stable  and  positively  resisting 
breech  block,  something  akin  to  that  of  the  Sharps  rifle  or  bolt 
system/' 

Smokeless  powder  has  come  to  stay,  but  there  is  yet  room  for  im- 
provement. Its  susceptibility  to  extremes  of  heat  and  cold  affects 
the  accuracy  of  its  shootmg.  It  sometimes  behaves  in  the  most  be- 
wildering manner.  The  service  charge  has  been  known  to  give  a 
pressure  of  70,000  pounds  in  the  .236  navy  rifle.  If  in  response  to 
the  frantic  howls  of  some  newspapers  such  powder  had  been  issued 
to  the  volunteers  of  the  Spanish  war  there  would  have  been  more 
American  soldiers  killed  by  bursting  guns  than  by  Spanish  bullets. 
Beginning  with  1892  Congress  was  asked  every  year  for  an  appropria- 
tion for  small  caliber  guns  and  smokeless  powder  but  it  turned  a  deaf 


472          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

ear  and  the  appropriations  were  so  inadequate  that  the  magazine 
guns  were  supplied  only  to  the  regular  army  and  the  smokeless 
powder  cartridges  available  for  practice  averaged  two  per  man  per 
day  and  left  none  in  reserve.  The  country  had  been  warned  of  this 
plight  by  the  chief  of  ordnance  as  far  back  as  1893. 

Most  smokeless  powders  are  made  from  preparations  of  gun  cot- 
ton or  nitroglycerin,  explosives  that  are  so  sudden  and  violent  in 
their  action  that  it  is  necessary  to  mix  them  with  a  "  restrainer"  to 
retard  combustion. 

Smokeless  powder  injures  the  gun  in  two  ways:  by  wash  and  by 
erosion.  Wash  is  the  cutting  away  of  the  gun  by  columns  of  gas  at 
a  high  temperature  and  under  heavy  pressure  escaping  rapidly  past 
the  side  of  the  projectile.  Erosion  is  the  eating  of  the  surface  of  the 
gun  by  the  particles  of  gas  moving  rapidly  at  a  high  temperature 
under  great  pressure.  Erosion  takes  place  chiefly  a  short  distance 
in  front  of  the  powder  chamber,  not  in  the  powder  chamber,  where  it 
is  not  in  motion,  nor  at  the  muzzle,  where  the  temperature  is  re- 
duced. Wash  occurs  at  any  point  in  the  gun  where  the  gas  can  get 
past  the  projectile. 

Cordite,  the  smokeless  powder  used  by  England,  consists  of 
nitroglycerin  58,  gun  cotton  37,  vaseline  5.  It  is  highly  destruc- 
tive of  the  bore  of  the  gun  but  is  not  so  markedly  injurious  to  small 
calibers.  A  high  English  authority  says,  "  Our  heavy  guns  wear  so 
intolerably  fast  that  we  cannot  reckon  on  the  velocities  we  assign  to 
them  for  any  considerable  number  of  rounds."  England  at  least  has 
more  trouble  in  this  respect  than  other  nations  acknowledge.  She 
alone  uses  cordite.  The  smokeless  powder  used  by  Germany  con- 
tains about  25  percent,  nitroglycerin. 

A  new  smokeless  powder  of  the  pyro-cellulose  type  used  by 
the  United  States  navy  seems  to  give  excellent  results  and  to  be 
somewhat  in  advance  of  that  of  any  other  nation.  Extremes  of 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  473 

heat,  cold,  and  moisture  seem  to  affect  it  but  little,  and  the  depart- 
ment reports  that  it  gives  low  pressure  and  high  velocity,  while  thus 
far  erosion  is  almost  an  unknown  quantity.  As  a  comparison,  where 
the  old  style  brown  powder  gave  a  velocity  of  2000  feet  with  15  tons 
pressure,  the  new  powder  with  but  little  more  pressure  gives  a  veloc- 
ity of  3000  feet,  thus  throwing  its  projectile  farther,  faster,  in  a 
flatter  curve,  and  with  greater  energy  and  penetration.  This  powder 
has  worked  so  well  that  the  service  velocity  has  been  raised  from 
2000  feet  per  second  to  2800  feet  for  the  heavy  guns  and  3000  feet 
per  second  for  the  cannon  of  smaller  calibers.  A  4-inch  gun  was 
fired  66 1  times  and  a  5 -inch  gun  666  times  with  this  powder  without 
causing  enough  wear  to  be  detected  by  the  most  delicate  gauges  in 
use  at  the  proving  grounds,  a  remarkable  gain  over  the  perform- 
ances of  any  other  powder.  Its  good  qualities  are  attributed  to  its 
producing  an  unusually  large  volume  of  gas  at  a  much  lower  tem- 
perature. 

Lyddite,  used  by  the  English  as  a  bursting  charge  for  shells  in 
their  South  African  war,  is  practically  identical  with  melenite,  which 
the  French*  used  as  a  bursting  charge.  They  are  both  made  from 
soluble  gun  cotton  dissolved  in  ether  and  acted  upon  by  picric  acid. 
Until  recently  they  have  not  been  regarded  as  very  stable.  Armor- 
piercing  shells  loaded  with  jovite  as  a  bursting  charge  have  been  fired 
through  four  inches  of  hardened  armor  and  exploded  in  the  rear  of 
the  plate,  showing  that  such  projectiles  could  be  fired  through  the 
side  of  a  ship  and  exploded  within,  where  their  destructive  effect  can 
be  easily  imagined. 

Powder  in  small  grains  burns  so  quickly  that  large  cannon  cannot 
withstand  the  resulting  shock.  This  feature  brought  the  making  of 
large  guns  to  a  standstill  until  General  Rodman,  the  eminent  artil- 
lerist, discovered  that  by  making  the  grains  larger,  pressing  the  pow- 

*The  first  successful  smokeless  powder  was  developed  in  France. 


474  THE   MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

der  harder,  and  perforating  it,  he  could  control  its  combustion,  for  as 
a  piece  of  powder  grows  smaller  in  burning  it  has  less  burning  surface 
and  generates  jess  gas.  Rodman,  by  perforating  large  powder 
grains  and  firing  them  from  the  inside,  made  the  burning  surface  in- 
crease as  the  powder  was  consumed  and  constantly  increased  the 
volume  of  gas  generated.  The  same  principle  is  used  to-day  with 
smokeless  powder. 

Gun  cotton  was  first  manufactured  by  Schonbein  in  1845  Dut 
proved  dangerous  to  handle  until  rendered  safe  by  purifying,  pulping, 
and  compressing  it.  It  is  made  by  steeping  pure  dry  cotton  in  a 
mixture  of  the  purest  and  strongest  nitric  and  sulphuric  acids. 
Waste  from  the  spinning  rooms  of  cotton  mills  is  usually  employed. 
This  is  thoroughly  cleansed  and  dried.  Sulphuric  and  nitric  acid  in 
the  proportion  of  three  to  one  are  mixed  and  allowed  to  cool.  One 
part  of  cotton  is  then  immersed  in  ten  parts  of  the  mixture  for  ten 
minutes.  The  cotton  is  removed,  nearly  all  of  the  acid  squeezed  out, 
and  the  cotton  put  in  an  earthenware  crock  for  twenty-four  hours  to 
" digest."  It  is  then  removed,  washed,  and  wrung  out,  afterward  re- 
duced to  pulp,  when  it  is  again  washed  in  fresh  water  and  then  in  water 
containing  lime,  caustic  soda,  and  marble  dust  to  neutralize  any  acid 
that  might  remain.  It  is  then  molded  into  little  rectangular  blocks 
each  with  the  corners  cut  off  and  a  hole  made  through  its  center. 
Gun  cotton  before  being  made  into  pulp  differs  but  little  from  ordi- 
nary cotton.  It  is  harsher  to  the  touch  and  less  flexible.  The 
blocks  are  saturated  with  water  and  packed  in  the  torpedo  cases. 
Containing  30  per  cent,  of  water  they  can  be  exploded  only  by  the 
detonation  of  dry  gun  cotton  placed  in  contact  with  them.  To 
develop  the  force  of  gun  cotton  it  must  be  strongly  confined  and 
unless  so  confined  is  not  very  sensitive  to  shock.  Cold  has  little  effect 
on  it.  It  explodes  at  a  temperature  of  360°  Fahrenheit.  Compressed 
gun  cotton  in  small  quantities  may  be  safely  lighted  in  the  hand, 


MILITARY   ART   AND    SCIENCE.  475 

placed  on  the  ground,  and  the  flame  extinguished  by  pouring  water 
on  it. 

Liquid  Air  as  an  Explosive.  Those  engaged  in  exploiting  liquid 
air  have  urged  the  use  of  that  article  as  an  explosive,  claiming  for  it 
a  pressure  of  12,000  pounds  per  square  inch,  but  a  cubic  foot  of  gun 
cotton  can  be  detonated  in  1-2000  part  of  a  second  and  the  mass 
converted  into  gas  which  before  it  expands  exerts  a  pressure  of  more 
than  800,000  pounds  per  square  inch.  Although  one  of  the  most 
powerful  explosives  it  is  the  safest  known. 

Nitroglycerin  was  discovered  in  1847  by  A.  Sobrero.  Cotton 
and  pure  glycerin  are  chemically  about  the  same,  and  nitroglycerin 
is  made  from  glycerin  as  gun  cotton  is  made  from  cotton,  by  mixing 
pure  glycerin  with  the  purest  and  strongest  nitric  and  sulphuric 
acids.  Any  fatty  impurities  in  the  glycerin  used  make  the  com- 
pound unstable  and  are  a  fertile  source  of  accident.  Nitroglycerin 
is  made  by  mixing  about  600  pounds  of  nitric  acid  with  about  iioo 
pounds  of  sulphuric  acid  in  a  leaden  tank  and  letting  it  cool  for 
twelve  hours.  This  is  then  run  into  a  cast  iron  tank  surrounded  by 
a  larger  tank  filled  with  water.  Within  the  smaller  tank  are  spiral 
pipes  through  which  cold  water  circulates  to  keep  down  the  temper- 
ature. Two  hundred  and  forty  pounds  of  glycerin  in  the  form  of 
spray  is  then  mixed  with  the  acids.  This  is  a  dangerous  proceeding; 
considerable  heat  is  evolved,  the  temperature  must  be  watched,  and 
if  it  goes  above  80°  Fahrenheit  the  operation  is  suspended.  After  the 
charge  has  been  mixed  it  is  allowed  to  remain  for  a  few  minutes. 
The  nitroglycerin  soon  forms,  rises  to  the  surface,  and  is  separated 
from  the  acid  mixture.  The  nitroglycerin  is  then  washed  with 
fresh  water  and  afterward  with  a  solution  of  carbonate  of  soda  until 
all  traces  of  the  acids  are  removed  and  the  compound  shows  an  alka- 
line reaction.  Freshly  made  by  the  Mowbray  process  it  is  a  creamy 
white,  opaque,  oily  liquid,  but  after  standing  it  "clears"  and  becomes 


476  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

transparent  and  colorless  or  nearly  so.  As  found  in  commerce  it  is 
yellow  or  brownish  yellow.  It  does  not  mix  with  and  is  not  affected 
by  cold  water.  It  has  a  sweet,  pungent,  aromatic  taste  and  is  an 
active  poison.  The  fumes  from  it  produce  violent  headaches. 

Pure  nitroglycerin  is  not  sensitive  to  friction  or  moderate  per- 
cussion except  when  pinched  between  metallic  surfaces.  When 
confined  and  struck  a  smart  blow  it  explodes  on  account  of  its 
incompressibility.  When  in  a  state  of  decomposition,  however,  it 
may  be  extremely  sensitive  and  become  exceedingly  dangerous,  the 
slightest  shock  causing  a  violent  explosion.  Decomposition  may  be 
detected  by  its  turning  a  greenish  color  or  by  its  changing  blue 
litmus  paper  to  red.  In  a  frozen  state  nitroglycerin  becomes  insen- 
sitive and  is  safely  handled  in  that  condition. 

The  incompressibility  of  liquid  nitroglycerin  is  a  dangerous 
quality  and  the  liquid  is  inconvenient  to  handle.  To  make  it  safer 
and  jmore  convenient  some  material  that  will  absorb  and  retain  it  is 
used.  It  then  passes  under  the  general  name  of  dynamite,  giant 
powder,  etc.  The  igniting  point  of  dynamite  is  about  360°  F.  Ig- 
nited in  small  quantities  in  the  open  air  it  simply  burns  fiercely. 
Large  quantities  would  explode.  Dynamite  freezes  at  40°  F.  and  in 
this  condition  is  not  easily  exploded. 

Explosive  gelatin,  the  most  powerful  explosive  of  all,  is  made 
by  dissolving  by  the  aid  of  heat  four  to  eight  parts  of  soluble  gun 
cotton  in  ninety-six  to  ninety-eight  parts  of  nitroglycerin.  It  then 
becomes  a  honey  yellow  color  varying  in  consistency  from  jelly  to 
tough  leather.  Unconfined  it  burns  freely  but  does  not  explode.  If 
confined  it  explodes  violently.  Its  ignition  point  is  399°  F.  if 
heated  slowly;  if  heated  rapidly,  464.  In  a  frozen  state  it  is  ex- 
tremely sensitive  to  shock;  unfrozen,  not  very  sensitive.  Military 
explosive  gelatin  is  made  by  mixing  camphor  with  it,  which  in- 
creases the  elasticity  and  makes  it  less  sensitive  to  shock. 


MINERAL  INDUSTRIES. 

Gold  —  Where  It  is  Found  —  How  Obtained  —  Its  Use  in  the  Arts  —  Its  Use  as  Money 

—  The  Cyanide  Process— The   Gold  Fields  of  South  Africa  —  Silver  —  How    Obtained 

—  Largely  a  By- Product  —  Its  Use  in  the  Arts — Its  Use  as  Money  —  Copper  Mining  — 
Marked  Increase  in  the  Use  of  Aluminum  —  Coal  the  Basis  of  our  Industrial  Life  —  The 
World's  Coal  Production  and  its  Equivalent  in  Man  Power — Natural  Gas — Gas  Manu- 
facturing —  Water  Gas  —  Fuel  Gas  —  Coal  Tar  —  Petroleum  —  First  Oil  Wells  —  How  Oil 
Wells  are  Drilled  — The  Largest  Oil  Well  in  the  World— John  D.  Rockefeller's  Defense 
of  the  Standard  Oil  Company.  —  The  Wells  Light. 

GOLD. 

GOLD  was  probably  the  earliest  metal  known  to 
man,  and  its  ductility,  malleability,  beautiful 
appearance,  and  indestructibility  have  made  it  prized 
in  all  ages.  It  is  rarely  found  pure  but  often  alloyed 
with  silver;  portions  of  the  famous  Comstock  lode  of 
Nevada  assaying  gold  55.37,  silver  42.87.  A  cubic 
inch  of  pure  gold  weighs  a  little  more  than  10  Troy 
ounces  and  is  worth  $209.38.  One  ounce  is  worth 
$20.67  and  can  be  beaten  out  so  thin  as  to  cover  189 
square  feet  of  surface.  One  grain  made  into  gold 
leaf  will  cover  more  than  50  square  inches  or  can  be 
drawn  into  wire  500  feet  long. 

Gold  occurs  in  the  rock  formations  of   nearly  all 
geological  periods,  from  the  earliest  to  the  latest,  but 
it  is  chiefly  in   the  slates  and  shales    of  the  middle, 
secondary,    and    paleozoic   periods    that   the  greatest 
deposits    lie.     When  gold  is  found   between    broken 
strata  it  is  usually  associated  with 
quartz  and  the  veins  vary  in  width 
from  a  few  inches  to  several  feet.    / 

Placers  are  the  superficial  de- 


478          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

posits  of  sediment  by  the  action  of  water.  Veins  occur  where, 
owing  to  some  convulsion  of  nature,  cracks  have  been  made  in  the 
strata  and  gold  with  its  accompanying  medium  (veinstone)  is  forced 
into  the  crack.  A  vein  is  usually  vertical  or  nearly  vertical,  and 
exhibits  many  vagaries.  One  side  may  be  fairly  rich  in  gold  and 
the  other  side,  but  a  few  inches  away,  barren.  In  general,  gold  in 
veins  is  found  in  "  chutes"  or  "  chimneys  "  extending  nearly  vertical. 
A  quartz  vein  hundreds  of  feet  in  length  may  have  in  it  a  gold  bear- 
ing column  only  a  few  feet  long  but  extending  vertically  hundreds 
of  feet.  Geologists  explain  these  chutes  or  chimneys  on  the  theory 
that  hot  water  or  vapors  once  escaped  through  fissures  in  the  rock  and 
lined  their  passageway  with  gold  as  soot  is  deposited  in  a  chimney. 

Gold  as  it  occurs  in  nature  is  either  "free-milling"  or  "rebel- 
lious." The  former  is  so  denominated  because  it  is  easily  extracted 
from  its  ores,  as  metallic  gold  or  as  a  simple  salt  of  the  metal  which 
yields  readily  to  reduction.  Rebellious  ores  are  those  in  which  it  is 
especially  difficult  to  separate  the  gold  they  contain  into  a  metallic 
form.  Deposits  which  contain  gold  in  so  slight  a  quantity  that  the 
gold  obtained  does  not  pay  for  its  removal  are  also  called  rebellious. 
There  are  vast  deposits  of  this  class ;  for  even  a  ton  of  sea  water 
holds  one  grain  of  gold  in  solution,  and  the  brick  clay  underlying  the 
city  of  Philadelphia  contains  gold.  Improved  methods  may  eventu- 
ally render  it  profitable  to  work  them. 

Placer  Mining  is  certainly  the  cheapest,  simplest,  and  probably 
the  oldest  method  of  obtaining  gold.  It  was  the  method  employed 
by  the  North  Bloomfield  Mining  Company  of  North  California  and 
allowed  them  to  pay  dividends  on  deposits  that  assayed  but  3  cents 
per  cubic  yard.  Prospecting,  searching  for  new  ore  deposits,  is  nearly 
all  done  by  the  placer  method.  The  prospectors  usually  go  in  pairs, 
pausing  to  wash  out  a  panful  of  dirt  here  and  there  wherever  their 
practiced  eyes  find  any  indications  of  gold. 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  479 

Panning  is  the  simplest  method  of  mining,  for  all  the  tools 
required  are  a  large,  shallow  iron  pan  and  a  shovel.  A  shovelful  of 
earth  is  placed  in  the  pan,  the  pan  nearly  filled  with  water,  and  a 
vigorous  rotary  motion  given  to  it,  which  dissolves  the  earth  and 
throws  the  mud  and  gravel  out  over  the  edge  of  the  pan.  The  gold, 
if  there  is  any,  being  heavy,  sinks  to  the  bottom  and  the  process  is 
continued  until  nothing  remains  but  the  few  glittering  specks  of  gold 
in  the  bottom  of  the  pan.  The  method  is  slow  and  laborious  but  is 
the  first  employed  in  any  new  field,  and  many  fortunes  have  been 
made  by  it. 

The  rocker,  a  piece  of  mining  apparatus,  resembling  a  flat  cradle 
with  a  handle  at  one  corner,  is  set  so  that  the  head  is  higher  than 
the  foot  and  has  across  the  lower  end  a  strip  of  rawhide  with  the 
hair  on,  the  hair  pointing  toward  the  head  of  the  cradle.  A  few 
shovelfuls  of  earth  are  thrown  in,  the  water  added  gradually,  and  the 
cradle  shaken.  The  material  that  is  lightest  and  presents  most  sur- 
face to  the  action  of  the  water  is  carried  away.  The  heavier  parts 
sink;  the  gold,  if  any,  goes  to  the  bottom.  If  the  miner  calls  chem- 
istry to  his  aid  and  sprinkles  mercury  on  the  rawhide  he  increases  the 
returns;  for  mercury  has  a  great  affinity  for  gold  and  absorbs  all  that 
comes  within  its  reach. 

The  "  long  torn  "  is  a  rocker  drawn  out  to  many  times  its  original 
length  to  afford  greater  capacity  and  a  chance  for  a  more  thorough 
washing  of  the  materials.  Placer  mining  is  available  only  for  the 
gold  that  has  been  torn  out  of  the  veins  and  deposited  by  the  action 
of  water. 

Hydraulic  Mining.  The  prospector  with  his  pan,  rocker,  and 
''long  torn  "  skimmed  over  the  surface  and  left  untouched  the  gravel 
beds  of  ancient  streams  that  are  frequently  covered  by  beds  of  lava. 
The  bulk  of  gold  in  California  and  Australia  is  now  obtained  from 
ancient  valleys,  narrow  channels  or  depressions  guarded  by  walls  of 


480  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

rock  which  must  be  pierced  to  get  to  the  deposit.  This  is  often 
done  by  running  a  tunnel  from  a  lower  adjoining  valley  so  as  to  get 
the  necessary  grade  to  carry  away  the  material  and  the  water  used 
in  washing  it  out.  This  form  of  mining,  known  as  hydraulic  mining, 
originated  in  California  in  1852,  and  the  most  gigantic  mining  engi- 
neering feats  are  displayed  in  connection  with  it.  Millions  of  dollars 
are  sometimes  spent  before  the  investment  becomes  a  paying  one  and 
an  abundance  of  water  at  a  sufficient  head,  large  deposits,  and  a  sit- 
uation that  gives  room  for  the  disposal  of  the  tailings  or  waste,  are 
necessary.  Water  for  this  purpose  has  been  carried  100  miles  or 
more;  mountains  have  been  tunneled  to  make  a  passage  for  it, 
flumes  have  been  hung  along  the  face  of  precipices  and  inverted 
siphons  constructed  by  which  it  was  carried  to  the  bottom  of  a  valley 
and  up  again  over  the  top  of  the  next  range  of  hills,  making  a  dip  of 
2000  feet.  Great  dams  are  built  to  store  up  the  water  of  the  rainy 
season  against  the  season  of  drought.  Whole  rivers  are  appropriated 
and  the  water  delivered  into  working  reservoirs  from  one  to  several 
hundred  feet  above  the  point  where  the  nozzle  is  to  be  located.  The 
water  supply  having  been  secured,  a  flume  or  pay  channel  is  built  to 
the  lowest  part  of  the  deposit,  having  sufficient  slope  to  allow  the 
escaping  water  to  carry  away  the  material. 

The  North  Bloomfield  Company  of  California  expended  $1,250,- 
000  to  bring  the  water  to  the  bed.  More  than  100  miles  of  ditches 
and  reservoir  were  constructed  for  the  water  supply  alone,  and  to 
reach  the  deposit  a  tunnel  nearly  8000  feet  long  and  from  6  to  8  feet 
wide  and  high  was  constructed.  The  water  is  carried  down  iron 
pipes  to  the  bottom  of  the  deposit  and  there  delivered  under  a  pres- 
sure of  from  100  to  500  feet,  the  nozzle  throwing  streams  from  2^ 
to  9  inches  in  diameter  with  a  power  sufficient  to  toss  about,  like 
pebbles,  rocks  weighing  hundreds  of  pounds.  In  this  way  enormous 
quantities  of  the  material  are  literally  torn  to  pieces  and  the  gold  is 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  481 

carried  away  in  the  resulting  torrent  of  gravel  and  muddy  water 
which  rushes  down  the  flume.  Across  the  bottom  of  the  flume  tim- 
bers with  narrow  spaces  between  them  are  set  up,  or  flat  stones  on 
edge,  to  form  eddies  and  allow  the  gold  to  settle  as  the  stream  passes. 
Blankets  with  a  hairy  nap  especially  constructed  for  this  purpose,  or 
rawhides,  with  the  hair  uppermost,  are  "fastened  along  the  bottom, 
and  frequently  charged  with  mercury,  which  seizes  the  gold  in  passage. 
Washing  may  continue  for  days,  weeks,  or  months  and  then  the  time 
for  a  "  clean-up  "comes.  The  water  is  stopped  and  as  soon  as  the 
flume  is  dry  the;  rawhides,  blankets,  and  so  on,  are  taken  up,  shaken 
over  clean  sheets  or  rubber  blankets,  the  gold  amalgam  obtained,  put 
into^K still,  the  mercury  distilled,  condensed,,  and  made  ready  for  use 
again,  and  the  gold  heated  and  fused  into  a  solid  ingot  ready  for 
market. 

The  enormous  power  of  the  streams  used  almost  surpasses  be- 
lief. The  late  Stephen  J.  Field,  in  speaking  of  them  at  a  supper  at 
which  several  noted  men  were  present,  found  his  remarks  received 
with  good-natured  incredulity  and  for  his  hearers'  benefit  set  about 
gathering  information.  He  says,  "  At  the  Spring  Valley  Hydraulic 
Gold  Mine,  in  Cherokee,  Butte  Co.,  Cal.,  our  largest  stream  was 
through  an  8-inch  nozzle  under  311  feet  vertical  pressure,  delivered 
by  about  }4  mile  of  2  ^  foot  iron  pipe,  and  I  have  seen  ons  of  those 
streams,  at,  say,  20  feet  from  the  nozzle,  move  a  bowlder  weighing 
2  tons  in  a  sluggish  way,  and  throw  a  rock  of  500  pounds  as  a  man 
throws  a  2O-pound  weight.  No  man  that  ever  lived  could  strike  a 
bar  through  one  of  these  streams  within  20  feet  of  discharge,  and  a 
human  being  struck  by  such  a  stream  would  be  instantly  killed, 
pounded  into  a  shapeless  mass." 

The  pan,  the  rocker,  the  long  torn,  and  hydraulic  mining  are 
suited  only  in  placer  mines,  which,  though  at  times  rich,  are  soon  ex- 
hausted, yet  these  surface  deposits  are  often  guides  to  rich  ore  de- 
posits contained  in  veins. 


482  THE   MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

Shaft  Mining.  The  outcropping  of  the  vein  being  found,  if  con- 
sidered rich  enough  to  warrant  the  outlay,  a  shaft  is  sunk  deep 
enough  to  reach  the  vein  in  its  pristine  condition,  and  the  system  of 
mining  adapted  to  the  conditions  is  begun.  Some  shafts  are  sunk  to 
enormous  depths,  and  veins  are  frequently  worked  more  than  2000 
feet  below  the  surface  and  yield  fabulous  amounts.  The  Eureka,  a 
quartz  mine  of  Colorado,  paid  more  than  $2,000,000  in  dividends  in 
less  than  10  years.  The  Idaho,  a  mine  adjoining  it,  was  worked  to  a 
depth  of  2100  feet  and  paid  $1,250,000  in  five  years. 

Reduction  of  Ore.  When  the  gold-bearing  rock  is  raised  to  the 
surface  it  is  reduced  by  crushers  or  stamps.  Crushers  are  strong 
machines  with  a  pair  of  heavy  jaws  faced  with  case-hardened  steel ; 
the  jaws  open  wide  enough  at  the  top  to  take  in  the  largest  pieces  of 
rock  from  the  mine,  and  at  the  bottom  approach  to  a  narrow  slit. 
As  the  jaws  close,  the  rock  is  broken  somewhat,  and  when  the  jaws 
are  opened  it  falls  a  little  to  be  again  crushed  until  it  emerges 
through  the  slit  almost  as  fine  as  powder.  One  machine  can  crush 
from  400  to  500  tons  of  rock  in  a  day. 

Stamp  mills  divide  the  ore  more  finely  and  render  accessible 
smaller  particles  of  gold.  The  stamps  are  like  gigantic  mortars  and 
pestles,  the  latter  being  able  to  strike  a  blow  of  30  tons  or  more. 
They  are  arranged  along  in  a  row  or  battery  and  steam  or  water 
power  is  employed  to  run  them.  The  ore  is  fed  into  the  trough, 
which  serves  as  a  common  mortar  for  all  the  pestles,  being  divided 
as  it  passes  from  one  stamp  to  another  until  it  emerges  mixed  with 
water  as  "  slime."  Various  machines,  known  as  vanners,  jiggers, 
tables,  rotaries,  and  many  others,  each  suited  to  a  special  case,  are 
employed  to  "concentrate"  the  slime,  though,  if  it  is  free-milling 
ore,  there  is  usually  mixed  with  it  while  under  the  stamps,  mercury, 
which  unites  with  all  the  gold  with  which  it  comes  in  contact,  and  by 
passing  the  pulp  or  slime  from  the  battery  over  an  amalgamated 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  483 

per  plate  the  gold  amalgam  is  "held  out."  The  slime  is  then  passed 
over  to  the  concentrating  machines,  which  separate  the  gold  from 
the  rest  of  the  rock,  and  the  residue  is  smelted,  chlorinated,  cya- 
nided,  according  to  the  method  deemed  best  for  the  particular  case. 

Gold  nuggets  of  great  size  are  uncommon  and  their  discovery  is 
pure  luck.      Usually  there  is  not  much  gold  in  their  immediate  vicin- 
ity and  they  seem   to  be  strangers   who    (jO[_J)  pRODUCT 
have  drifted  from   their  homes  and  pre- 

loOo 

served   their    identity    because   of   their 
great  size.    Miners,  toiling  for  years  with      l887 
poor  results,  have  been  known  to  go  mad 

1695 

on    unearthing    a    big  nugget.       Super- 
stitious miners  believe  that  bad  luck  fre- 
quently   accompanies    the    nugget    and 
there  are  many  remarkable  coincidences  well  calculated  to  strengthen 
their  belief. 

The  largest  nugget  ever  found  is  accredited  to  New  Zealand, 
where,  in  1852,  one  weighing  223  pounds  4  ounces  is  said  to  have 
been  found  and  sold  for  $5 5,000. 

Australia  seems  to  have  produced  the  greatest  number  of  large 
nuggets.  The  famous  "Blanch  Barkly"  weighed  146  pounds.  The 
"Ballarat"  nugget  weighed  184  pounds  8  ounces  and  sold  for 
$41,000. 

The  largest  American  nugget  was  probably  that  found  at  Camp 
Corona,  Tuolumne  County,  California,  November  18,  1854.  Oliver 
Martin  and  a  partner  had  prospected  for  months  without  success,  and 
severe  weather  coming  on,  the  partner,  unable  to  withstand  the  pri- 
vations, sickened  and  died.  Martin,  weak  as  he  was,  tried  to  give 
him  a  decent  burial  and  began  digging  a  grave  at  the  foot  of  a  tree, 
when  he  unearthed  a  nugget  as  thick  as  a  man's  body.  He  was  so 
weak  he  could  not  get  it  out  of  the  ground,  so  covered  it  up,  and 


484  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

burying  his  friend   near  by  set   out   for  help  to  secure  his  treasure. 
The  nugget  weighed  151  pounds  6  ounces,  and  sold  for  $36,270. 

One  Daniel  Hill  had  more  than  his  share  of  luck.  In  1866  he 
found  a  nugget  which  sold  for  $17,000  and  in  1871  one  which  sold 
for  $14,000.  Perhaps  his  find  "  drove  him  to  drink"  for  he  died  in 
jail  of  delirium  tremens. 

Cyanide  Process.  Early  in  the  nineteenth  century  it  was  known 
that  potassium  cyanide  would  dissolve  gold  and  the  method  was  used 

for  years  in  gold  plating.  In  1887  patents 
were  issued  in  Great  Britain,  and  in  1889  in 
the  United  States,  to  McArthur  and  Forrest, 
for  a  "  cyanide  process  "  of  treating  gold  ore. 
They  roasted  with  an  alkali  or  alkaline  salts 
tne  ore  to  ke  treated,  employed  a  dilute  solu- 
tion of  potassium  cyanide,  and  precipitated 
the  gold  out  of  the  solution  by  the  use  of 
the  zinc.  This  method  obtains  from  90  per 
cent,  to  97  per  cent,  of  the  gold  present  and 
THE  PROSPECTOR.  hag  made  valuable>  mines  that  cannot  be  prof- 

itably worked  by  any  other  existing  methods. 

If  the  cyanide  process  had  not  been  discovered  the  late  South 
African  war  would  probably  never  have  taken  place,  for  the  Wit- 
watersrand  mines  of  South  Africa  were  not  especially  profitable  until 
the  cyanide  process  was  put  in  operation  there.  There  are  more 
than  forty  cyanide  plants  in  South  Africa  and  the  cyanide  process  is 
best  adapted  to  the  working  of  those  ores  that  are  the  least  suited  to 
other  methods.  It  is  easy  enough  to  get  the  gold  into  a  solution, 
the  cyanide  solution  does  that,  but  the  trouble  comes  in  ridding  the 
solution  of  its  gold.  Many  methods  have  been  devised  for  the 
purpose,  the  fact  that  there  are  so  many  showing  that  few  of  them 
are  satisfactory.  Several  methods  are  employed  to  precipitate  the 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES. 


485 


gold  contained  in  the  solution, —  one  by  sending  an  electric  current 
through  it;  another  by  adding  zinc  shavings  and  an  excess  of  potas- 
sium cyanide,  when  the  gold  unites  with  the  zinc  and  is  heated  to  a 
red  heat,  which  oxidizes  the  zinc  and  leaves  the  pure  gold  behind. 
There  are  numerous  modifications  of  the  method,  each  requiring  the 
highest  skill  in  their  adaptation  to  the  particular  kind  of  work  in 
hand,  but  the  process  in  one  form  and  another  has  grown  until  the 
Witwatersrand  produced  in  1897,  just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war, 
3,034,678  ounces  of  gold  valued  at  $62,726,794.26. 


SILVER. 

Silver  was  one  of  the  earliest  metals  known  to  man  and  is  very 
widely  distributed.  A  list  of  122  metalliferous  minerals,  exclusive  of 
silver  ores,  analyzed,  showed  silver  to  be  present.  It  is  found  in  sea 
water,  and  it  is  calculated  that  the 
ocean  contains  at  least  2,000,000 
tons  of  the  metal.  It  is  found  as- 
sociated with  all  native  gold  ores, 
ranging  from  less  than  I  per  cent, 
to  nearly  50  per  cent.  The  silver 
ores  of  the  Comstock  lode  of  Ne- 
vada contain  about  43  per  cent,  of 
silver.  The  gold  of  California  aver- 
ages about  12  per  cent,  of  silver.  It  is  an  important  constituent  of 
most  copper  mines,  often  constituting  about  10  per  cent.,  the  great 
Anaconda  mine  of  Montana  producing  in  three  years  more  than  40,- 
000,000  ounces  of  silver  as  a  by-product,  or  nearly  as  much  as  the 
whole  world  produced  for  1871. 

The  greater  part  of  commercial  lead  is  obtained  from  galena  (lead 
and   sulphur),    and   silver  is   nearly   always    associated   with   galena. 


HOTEL  IN  NEW  MINING  CAMP. 


486  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

Silver  is  also  found  with  sulphur,  arsenic,  antimony,  chlorine, 
bromine,  and  iodine. 

The  production  of  silver  has  greatly  increased  within  the  past 
century,  aided  largely  by  improved  mining  machinery  and  improve- 
ments in  the  chemistry  of  mining,  which  allowed  it  to  be  separated 
from  the  other  substances  with  which  it  was  found  in  combination, 
for  some  lead  ores  can  now  be  worked  for  silver  that  contain  less  than 
one  third  the  amount  necessary  for  profitable  working  half  a  century 
ago,  and  as  the  demand  for  lead  has  enormously  increased,  an  in- 
creased production  of  silver  was  of  necessity  bound  to  follow. 

The  first  ten  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  world  used 
91,000  tons  of  copper.  The  last  ten  years  of  the  same  century  saw 
3,643,000  tons  used,  and  it  is  estimated  that  at  least  25  per  cent,  of 
copper  is  obtained  as  a  by-product  from  the  refining  of  gold  and 
silver.  Associated  as  silver  is  with  such  a  large  variety  of  minerals, 
its  production  has  been  materially  increased  by  the  improved  methods 
of  obtaining  each  mineral.  It  possesses,  in  this  respect,  a  marked 
advantage  over  gold,  which  is  not  so  widely  associated  with  other 
metals. 

Silver  in  the  Arts.  While  some  inventions  have  greatly  increased 
the  production  of  silver,  others  have  tended  to  make  it  less  widely 
used  in  the  arts.  Silver  was  once  highly  esteemed  for  table  service, 
and  silver  plate  was  looked  upon  almost  as  a  profitable  investment,  but 
in  modern  times  solid  silverware  has  been  to  a  very  great  extent  re- 
placed by  wares  covered  with  a  layer  of  pure  silver  by  the  electro- 
plating process.  Within  the  last  quarter-century,  aluminum,  once  far 
more  valuable  than  silver,  has  been  produced  so  cheaply  that  it  is 
now  taking  the  place  of  silver  to  a  marked  extent  in  toilet  articles, 
gilding,  etc. 

The  following  table  shows  the  production  of  silver  and  gold  for  a 
period  of  years  and  the  ratio  of  silver  to  gold  by  weight. 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES. 


487 


PRODUCTION  OF  GOLD  AND  SILVER  FROM  1493  TO  l872- 


1493-1520 

1521-1544 

1545-1560 
1561-1580 
1581-1600 
1601-1620 
1621-1640 
1641-1660 
1661-1680 
1681-1700 
1701-1720 
1721-1740 

I74I-I76O 

1761-1780 
1781-1800 
1801-1810 
1811-1820 
1821-1830 
1831-1840 
1841-1850 
1851-1855 
1856-1860 
1861-1865 
1866-1870 
1871-1872 


Estimated  by  Dr. 

Adolph  Soetbeer. 

(ozs.  of  Gold) 

(ozs.  of  Silver) 

5,22I,l6o 

42,309,400 

5,524,656 

69,598,320 

4,377,544 

160,287,040 

4,398,120 

192,578,500 

4,745,340 

269,352,700 

5,478,360 

271,924,700 

5,336,9oo 

253,084,800 

5,639,110 

235,530,900 

6,954,180 

216,691,000 

6,921,895 

219,841,700 

8,243,260 

228,6150,800 

12,268,440 

277,261,600 

15,824,230 

342,812,235 

*3>313>315 

419,711,820 

11,438,970 

565,235,580 

5,715,627 

287,469,225 

3,679,568 

173,857,555 

4,570,444 

148,070,040 

6,522,913 

191,758,675 

17,605,018 

250,903,422 

32,051,621 

*4  2,  44  2,  986 

32,431,312 

145,447,142 

29,747,9!3 

177,009,862 

31,350,430 
11,182,028 

215,257,914 
126,634,028 

Ratio  of 
Silver  to  Gold 

8  to 
12 
36 

43 

41 

47 
4i 
3i 
3i 

27 

22 
21 
31 

49 
5° 
47 
32 
29 
14 
4 

6 

6 

ii 


The  last  edition  of  the  Universal  Cyclopaedia  gives  the  following 


table:  — 


Years 

1871  to  1875,  mean 

1876 

1877 

1878 

1879 

1880 

1881 

1882 

1883 

1884 

1885 

1886 

1887 

1888 

1889 
1890 
1891 
1892 
1893 


Annual  Product,  Kilogrammes 
Gold  Silver 


I73»9°4 
165,956 

179,445 
185,847 

167,307 
163,515 
158,864 
148,475 
144,727 
I53,I93 
159,289 

159,741 
159,155 
159,809 

185,809 
181,256 
189,824 
196,234 
236,570 


1,969,425 
2,323,779 
2,388,612 
2,551,364 
2,507,507 
2,479,998 
2,592,639 
2,769,065 
2,746,123 
2,788,727 
2,993,805 
2,902,471 
2,990,398 
3,385,606 

3,901,809 
4,180,532 
4,479,649 
4,945,237 
5,031,488 


Ratio  of  Silver  to 
Gold  by  weight 

11.3 
14.0 
13.3 
13.7 
15.0 
15.2 
16.3 
18.6 
19.0 
18.2 
18.8 
18.2 
18.8 
21.2 

21.  0 
23.1 
23.6 
25.1 
21.3 


488  THE   MARVELS   OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

Silver  versus  Gold.  Since  the  last  date  given  above  the  les- 
sened demand  for  silver  and  improvements  in  methods,  which  have 
rendered  it  profitable  to  work  low  grade  gold  ores,  have  increased 
the  relative  production  of  gold.  The  greater  rapidity  with  which 
gold  is  obtained  by  placer  mining  sometimes  influenced  the  legal 
relation  of  value  between  those  two  metals  and  its  bearing  upon 
prices,  commerce,  and  civilization.  The  relative  value  of  gold  and 
silver  as  fixed  by  law  or  commerce  has  varied  widely.  Silver  was  pro- 
duced largely  in  Europe  and  gold  largely  in  Asia,  and  it  naturally  fol- 
lowed that  the  metal  had  a  higher  relative  value  in  the  land  where  it 
was  not  produced.  .Thus  in  1717  the  ratio  in  Europe  was  as  15  to  I, 

in  China  and  Japan  as  9  to  I.  Egyptian 
records  dating  back  to  1600  B.  C.  give  a 
ratio  of  13.33  to  l-  Japan  when  opened 
to  commerce  in  1854  valued  silver  much 
higher  than  did  Europeans,  and  traders 
took  advantage  of  this  to  exchange  silver 
for  gold  and  carry  millions  of  dollars  of 
the  yellow  metal  out  of  that  country.  In 
nearly  all  silver  ores  there  is  some  gold, 

and  in  nearly  all  gold  ores  some  silver.    In 
ON  THE  DUMP. 

three    hundred    and   fifty  million  dollars' 

worth  of  metal  produced  from  the  Comstock  lode  of  Nevada,  nearly 
one  half  in  value  consisted  of  gold.  For  this  and  other  reasons  it  is 
impossible  to  determine  the  original  average  cost  of  producing  gold 
and  silver  from  all  the  mines  during  any  reasonably  long  period  of 
time.  If  recent  statistics  are  to  be  trusted,  both  metals  are  pro- 
duced on  an  average  at  a  loss.  Such  is  alleged  to  have  been  the 
case  in  California,  Australia,  and  Nevada,  countries  whose  combined 
product  has  equaled  in  value  nearly  $3,000,000,000. 

In  the  principal  producing  countries  —  the   United  States,  Mex- 


MINERAL   INDUSTRIES.  489 

ico,  Chili,  and  Peru  —  mining  is  free  and  there  are  no  official  returns 
of  the  production,  which  is  therefore  a  mere  matter  of  conjecture. 
In  the  United  States  it  is  customary  to  value  the  silver  bullion  at 
one  sixteenth  that  of  gold.  This  unduly  swells  the  value  of  the  con- 
jectural product  of  this  country  more  than  one  fourth. 

Inquiries  as  to  the  quantities  of  silver  used  in  the  arts  have,  met 
with  little  success,  and  statistics  so  obtained  are  defective ;  but  the 
total  production  of  silver  in  the  western  world  being  estimated  at 
$7,000,000,000,  about  $1,500,000,000  remains  in  coins,  consequently 
nearly  four  fifths  have  been  consumed  in  the  arts,  lost,  and  so  on,  or 
exported.  On  the  whole  it  appears  quite  safe  to  estimate  the  aver- 
age consumption  of  silver  in  the  arts  and  through  wear  and  tear  and 
loss  as  fully  equal  to  three  fourths  of  the  production.  Hence  it  is 
evident  that  any  influence  tending  to  lessen  or  increase  considerably 
the  use  of  silver  in  the  arts  would  affect  materially  the  amount  avail- 
able for  coinage. 

COPPER. 

Copper,  a  metallic  element  widely  distributed,  was  one  of  the 
first  metals  used  by  man.  The  Romans  obtained  it  from  the  Island 
of  Cyprus,  from  which  its  Latin  name,  cuprum,  was  derived.  The 
development  of 'electrical  engineering  has  greatly  increased  the  de- 
mand for  copper,  for  next  to  silver  it  is  the  best  conductor  of  electric- 
ity, pure  copper  standing  about  93  in  a  table  where  silver  stands  at 
100,  and  its  remarkable  ductility  makes  it  easy  to  manufacture  it  into 
wire  for  electrical  conductors.  Copper  wire  is  the  core  of  every  sub- 
marine cable. 

Alloys.  Numerous  alloys  of  copper  are  highly  useful  in  the 
arts.  Brass  is  copper  alloyed  with  from  25  per  cent,  to  35  per  cent, 
of  tin.  Gun  metal,  copper  and  10  per  cent,  of  tin.  Bell  metal, 
copper  with  about  25  per  cent,  of  tin;  a  little  zinc  is  sometimes 


49° 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


added.  Bronze,  about  91  per  cent,  copper,  2  per  cent,  tin,  6  per 
cent,  zinc,  I  per  cent.  lead.  Pure  copper  mixed  with  3  per  cent, 
of  aluminum  produces  an  alloy  that  is  whiter  than  aluminum  and 
resembles  silver,  but  mixed  with  5  per  cent,  to  10  per  cent,  of  alumi- 

num  t^le  a^°  ^as  a 


color,   is  very    hard,    elastic, 
I  and   does    service   under  the 
name  of ''aluminum  bronze." 
German    silver    is    made    by 
alloying  copper  with  nickel  and  zinc. 

Use  of  Copper  in  Shipbuilding.  Copper 
is  extensively  used  as  sheathing  for  ships. 
The  vegetable  growth  of  tropical  waters  that 
adheres  to  a  ship's  bottom  causes  a  scale  to 
form  on  the  copper,  which  falls  off  when  much 
weight  is  attached  to  it.  This  keeps  the  bot- 
tom of  the  ship  much  freer  from  vegetable 
growth  than  it  would  otherwise  be.  The  in- 
fluence of  such  growth  on  a  ship's  speed  is 
often  well  illustrated.  The  Spanish  ships, 
which  were  rated  at  20  knots  an  hour,  were, 
owing  to  their  foul  bottoms  and  Spanish  en- 
gineers, unable  to  make  15  knots  an  hour  off 
Santiago.  The  British  battle  ship  Terrible, 
hurrying  troops  from  Hong  Kong  to  Taku  to 

HIGHEST  CHIMNEY  IN  THE   rescue'the  British  in  Pekin,  made  the  distance, 
WORLD,  35*  FEET  HIGH,      lgoo  mileS;  ftt  a  speed    of   on[y        ^  knots   an 

JUENVERj    i^/OL. 

hour  instead  of  the  22   knot  speed  of  her  trial 
trip.      This  well  illustrates  the  value  of  copper  sheathing. 

The  first   decade  of  the   nineteenth  century  used  91,000   tons  of 
copper,  the   last  ten  years,  3,643,000  tons.      The  copper  production 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  491 

of  the  world  for  1899  was  4^8,347  tons  °f  2240  pounds  each,  of 
which  the  United  States  produced  a  trifle  more  than  55  percent. 
Of  the  production  of  the  United  States  more  than  two  thirds  comes 
from  Michigan  and  Montana,  and  each  state  is  represented  by  a 
mine  famous  the  world  over, —  Michigan  by  the  Calumet  and  Hecla, 
Montana  by  the  Anaconda.  The  Anaconda  mine  produced  in  the 
three  years,  1895  to  1898,  550,962  tons  of  copper,  40,658,103 
ounces  of  silver,  and  135,244  ounces  of  gold. 

Lake  Superior  Mines.  The  copper  mines  of  the  Lake  Superior 
district  have  been  famous  for  many  years  and  the  presence  of  copper 
was  discovered  there  by  Father  Marquette  in  1660.  The  copper 
ore  is  there  found  in  veins  lying  at  an  angle  of  about  45  degrees. 
To  reach  the  veins,  shafts  of  enormous  size  have  been  sunk. 

The  Red  Jacket  shaft  of  the  Calumet  and  Hecla  Company,  14  feet 
by  22*/2  feet  in  cross  section,  is  4900  feet  deep,  or  almost  a  mile, 
and  is  probably  the  deepest  shaft  in  the  world,  its  depth  being 
exceeded  only  by  some  artesian  wells.  A  shaft  in  the  Tamarack,  a 
neighboring  mine,  when  completed  will  be  6000  feet.  According  to 
preconceived  ideas  the  temperature  in  the  Red  Jacket  shaft  should 
increase  with  the  depth,  but,  strange  to  say,  the  temperature  at  the 
bottom  never  varies  far  from  70  degrees  Fahrenheit.  The  vein  con- 
taining the  ore  is  about  8  to  10  feet  wide  and  the  shaft  is  divided 
into  six  compartments,  in  each  of  which  a  load  of  10  tons  can  be 
hoisted  at  the  rate  of  1500  feet  per  minute,  making  a  total  hoisting 
capacity  of  the  shaft  of  180,000,000  foot-pounds  a  minute.  For  this 
purpose,  extremely  powerful  engines  are  employed,  and  each  engine 
is  duplicated  so  that  the  shaft  may  never  be  blocked  in  case  of  an 
accident  to  an  engine. 

Copper  Refining.  The  copper  ore  as  it  comes  from  the  mines  is 
crushed  and  smelted  into  impure  copper,  which  is  cast  into  ingots  or 
cakes  called  "  blister  copper."  In  this  condition  it  always  contains 


492  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

considerable  silver  and  usually  a  little  gold  together  with  other 
metallic  impurities,  such  as  arsenic,  etc.  These  cakes  are  sent  to  the 
refineries,  where  as  many  of  the  impurities  as  can  be  profitably  re- 
moved are  taken  out,  for  very  nearly  pure  copper  is  required  in  the 
arts,  and  minute  fractions  of  one  per  cent,  of  some  impurities  would 
make  a  marked  difference  in  its  power  to  conduct  electricity. 

The  electrolytic  method  of  refining  copper  is  now  the  one  by 
which  more  than  half  the  refined  copper  of  the  United  States  is  pro- 
duced. It  was  patented  by  James  Elkington  in  1867,  but  the 
method  was  not  employed  in  the  great  copper  refineries  until  about 
1887.  Within  a  few  years  a  considerable  reduction  in  the  cost  of 
refining  copper  has  been  made,  due  chiefly  to  economy  in  the  use  of 
power  and  the  handling  of  the  material. 

When  the  blister  copper  is  received  at  the  refinery,  samples  are 
assayed  and  the  cakes  are  then  cast  into  plates  (anodes)  weighing 
about  275  pounds  each.  These  are  suspended  in  tanks  in  a  fluid 
consisting  of  a  16  per  cent,  solution  of  bluestone  (copper  sulphate)  to 
which  5  per  cent,  of  sulphuric  acid  is  added.  The  cathode  plates 
for  the  battery  are  made  of  pure  copper  sheets  .04  inch  thick.  The 
method  is  similar  to  that  employed  in  electroplating.  When  the 
electric  current  is  turned  on,  the  copper  in  the  solution  is  set  free  and 
deposited  on  the  cathode  sheet.  The  sulphuric  acid  freed  by  the 
reaction  attacks  the  anode  and  forms  more  copper  sulphate.  The 
solution  is  carefully  watched,  tested,  and  kept  up  to  the  standard. 
When  the  anode  plates  are  destroyed  the  current  is  stopped,  the 
cathodes  removed,  cleaned,  melted,  and  cast  into  any  form  desired 
for  the  market.  The  gold,  silver,  and  copper  from  the  anodes  fall  to 
the  bottom  of  the  tank  during  the  electrolytic  action  and  form  what 
are  known  to  the  trade  as  "slimes."  The  pieces  of  the  anodes  are 
screened  out  and  remelted,  and  the  slimes  are  treated  by  various 
processes  which  recover  the  gold,  silver,  copper  sulphate,  and  arsenic. 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  493 

ALUMINUM. 

In  1724  a  German  chemist  named  Hoffman  declared  that  the 
bases  of  the  alkaline  earths  were  metals,  and  some  were  soon  recog- 
nized, but  aluminum  was  so  elusive  that  it  was  not  until  1754  that 
Margraff  proved  its  existence,  and  not  until  1854  that  St.  Claire  de 
Ville  of  Paris  was  able  to  produce  a  bar  of  the  metal.  The  Paris 
Exposition  of  1865  exhibited  a  bar  of  it  labeled  "  Silver  from  Clay." 
It  then  cost  $200  a  pound.  Improved  methods  have  greatly  reduced 
its  cost  until  it  is  now  a  familiar  object  and  has  quite  an  extensive 
use  in  the  arts.  Next  to  silicon  it  is  the  most  abundant  of  metals, 
being  found  in  every  clay  bank  and  the  cost  of  reducing  it  to  the 
metallic  state  is  all  that  keeps  up  the  price,  for  no  such  thing  occurs 
in  nature  as  an  aluminum  nugget  or  aluminum  dust.  Professor 
Clarke  of  Washington  estimates  that  the  crust  of  the  earth  contains 
7.81  per  cent,  of  aluminum  and  5.46  per  cent,  of  iron,  and  if  alumi- 
num were  as  easy  of  reduction  as  iron,  it  would  cost  much  less  than 
the  latter  metal. 

Distribution.  Aluminum  exists  in  the  greatest  quantities  on  the 
surface,  which  is  accounted  for  upon  the  supposition  that  when  the 
earth's  crust  was  in  a  fluid  form,  the  lighter  metals  floated  on 
the  surface,  and  as  aluminum  was  one  of  the  lightest  it  was  caught  in 
the  top  layer  when  the  crust  solidified. 

Common  clay,  a  mixture  of  about  half  silica  and  half  alumina 
(aluminum  and  oxygen)  with  a  little  water  and  some  minor  sub- 
stances, does  not  seem  closely  related  to  the  precious  stones  but 
amethysts,  sapphires,  rubies,  and  topazes  are  only  forms  of  alumina. 
Mica  contains  20  per  cent,  of  alumina,  clay  21  per  cent.,  emery  31^ 
per  cent.,  corundum  S2/4  per  cent.,  bauxite,  the  usual  ore  from 
which  the  metal  is  now  reduced,  from  28  to  3  I  ^  per  cent.  Emery 
and  corundum,  although  rich  in  aluminum,  are  valuable  in  themselves 
as  abrasives.  Aluminum  cannot  be  easily  derived  from  clay  because 


494  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

the  oxygen  holds  it  in  too  firm  a  grasp,  so  bauxite  (H6A12O6)  is  the 
common  source.  Aluminum  ranks  after  silver,  gold,  and  platinum 
as  the  least  alterable  of  the  metals. 

Aluminum  is  only  2^  times  as  heavy  as  water,  while  iron  is  7^ 
times  as  heavy,  copper  9  times,  lead  11  times,  and  gold  19  times. 
Its  electrical  conductivity  compared  with  silver  is  50,  and  it  can  be 
beaten  into  sheets  5-100,000  of  an  inch  thick,  in  which  form  it  is 
used  in  book  making. 

The  following  table  shows  how  the  price  of  aluminum  has  fallen 
with  improvements  in  the  methods  of  extracting  it:  — 

1855  $200.00  a  pound      1888  $5-OO  a  pound 

1856  82.00  "  "  1890  3.00  "  " 

1857  21. oo  "  "  1891  .50  "  " 
1860  12. oo  "  "  1893  .40  "  " 
1883  8.50  "  "  1900  .33  "  " 
1887  8.00  "  " 

Methods  of  Extraction.  Charles  M.  Hall  of  Oberlin,  Ohio,  and 
Heroult  of  France,  each  independently  and  at  about  the  same  time, 
April  2,  1889,  devised  very  simple  methods  for  the  extraction  of 
aluminum.  The  Hall  method  uses  a  containing  vessel  lined  with 
carbon,  the  lining  of  which  serves  as  the  cathode  for  the  electric  cur- 
rent. Suspended  in  the  middle  of  the  container  is  another  piece  of 
carbon,  the  anode,  that  does  not  touch  the  sides.  When  the  electric 
current  is  forced  through,  the  anode  is  slowly  oxidized.  Into  the 
container  is  put  a  mixture  of  the  fluorides  of  aluminum  and  sodium, 
two  poor  conductors  of  electricity,  and  when  they  have  been  melted 
by  the  heat  of  the  electric  current,  alumina  (aluminum  oxide,  AhC^) 
is  shoveled  into  the  bath  and  at  once  dissolved.  The  current  attacks 
the  alumina  and  separates  it  from  the  oxygen.  Hall's  method,  first 
established  on  a  considerable  scale  in  1888,  has  greatly  reduced  the 
price  of  the  metal. 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES. 


495 


ON  THE  TRAMWAY. 


COAL. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  coal  represents  the  heat  of  the 
sun  absorbed  by  the  growth  of  vegetation  of  a  time  long  past,  which 
later,  buried  under  water,  earth,  or  rock,  under- 
went a  process  of  decomposition  and  distillation, 
and  produced  the  dark,  unassuming 
object  sometimes  called  "  bottled  sun- 
shine "  and  "  black  slave."  Some  idea 
of  the  wonderful  luxuriance  of  the  for- 
ests of  the  coal  age  may  be  formed 
when  we  consider  that  if  the  forests 
of  to-day  were  to  be  put  through  the 
same  process  they  would  yield  a  layer 
of  coal  only  two  or  three  inches  thick, 
while  some  coal  beds  of  Germany  aggregate  nearly  300  feet,  and  in 
the  United  States  single  veins  are  found  from  60  to  100  feet  in  thick- 
ness. 

Its  Contribution  to  Civilization.  This  dark  shiny  object,  so 
familiar  that  it  often  attracts  no  attention,  contains  within  it  won- 
derful possibilities  and  has  a  most  fascinating  history.  If  it  had  not 
been  discovered  and  utilized,  much  of  our  boasted  civilization  of  the 
twentieth  century  would  be  impossible.  It  serves  man  in  many  ways, 
for  its  sphere  of  usefulness  is  not  restricted  to  furnishing  heat,  and 
its  derivatives  are  almost  innumerable.  In  short,  it  sometimes  seems 
as  though  almost  any  chemical  compound  present  in  existing  vegeta- 
tion can  be  duplicated  in  that  of  a  pre-historic  age.  Coal,  with  its 
history,  its  chemical  compounds,  its  latent  force,  claims  at  once  the 
attention  of  the  botanist,  the  zoologist,  the  chemist,  the  physicist, 
the  physician,  and  the  manufacturer. 

The  coal  beds  have  preserved  so  well  the  exact  outline  of  the 
ferns,  the  leaves  of  the  trees,  the  grains  of  the  wood,  the  mosses  on 


496  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

the  bark,  and  the  forms  of  animal  life  then  existing,  that  the 
scientist  is  better  acquainted  with  the  flora  and  fauna  of  the  car- 
boniferous age  than  the  average  layman  is  with  that  of  the  present. 

Mineral  coal  is  part  of  a  long  series  beginning  with  woody  fiber  and 
ending  with  graphite.  Different  stages  in  its  manufacture  are  repre- 
sented by  peat,  lignite,  bituminous  coal,  anthracite  coal,  asphaltum,  and 
graphite.  Among  the  other  products  are  petroleum  and  carbonic 
acid  and  carbureted  hydrogen  gases. 

Peat  is  formed  in  morasses  and  bogs  by  accumulating  decayed 
vegetable  matter  until  the  bottom  layers  become  darker  and  denser, 
have  some  of  the  gaseous  elements  driven  out  by  pressure,  and  par- 
take of  the  nature  of  coal.  A  vertical  section  of  a  peat  bog  shows 
every  stage  of  the  process.  Peat  is  extensively  used  for  fuel  in  some 
countries  but  it  is  inferior  to  lignite. 

Lignite  is  the  next  step,  and  represents  vegetable  fiber  from  which 
more  of  its  gaseous  substances  have  been  distilled.  It  shades  off 
from  brown  woody  fiber  into  bituminous  coal,  and  in  general  may  be 
said  to  come  between  peat  and  true  coal.  The  heat  value  of  lignite 
is  greater  than  that  of  peat,  but  in  general  less  than  that  of  the  true 
coal,  although  some  of  the  best  lignites  are  better  than  the  poorer 
coals.  The  most  of  the  coals  found  in  the  western  part  of  the  North 
American  continent  are  classed  as  lignites,  and  it  is  interesting  to 
note  that  portions  of  lignite  beds  which  have  been  subjected  to  great 
heat  and  pressure,  as  from  volcanic  sources,  have  sometimes  been 
developed  into  true  anthracite  with  its  characteristic  hardness  and 
glitter. 

Bituminous  coals  (soft  coals)  are  the  products  of  a  slow  distilla- 
tion which  has  rid  the  fiber  of  more  of  its  gaseous  constituents  than 
in  lignite  and  have  not  been  subjected  to  the  enormous  pressure  and 
influence  of  heat  that  produce  the  anthracite.  The  volatile  matter 
of  bituminous  coal  ranges  from  about  18  per  cent,  to  50  per  cent,  of 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  497 

the  mass.  Coke  is  made  from  that  grade  of  bituminous  coal  which 
will  cake  or  melt  and  adhere  into  a  mass  when  burning.  Furnace 
coals  are  those  that  do  not  exhibit  this  caking  feature  when  burning 
and  can  therefore  be  used  in  blast  furnaces.  Cannel  coal  is  rich  in 
gas  but  poor  in  heating  power  and  is  a  favorite  household  fuel  for  the 
open  grate.  Coking  coals  and  cannel  coals  are  not  adapted  to  iron 
smelting. 

Anthracite  is  the  hardest  variety  of  coal  and  has  a  characteristic 
glitter  that  the  softer  grades  do  not  possess.  Anthracite  is  coal  that 
has  been  subjected  to  greater  heat  and  pressure  and  has  so  driven  off 
more  of  the  volatile  elements,  until  it  contains  only  3  per  cent,  to  5 
per  cent,  of  volatile  matter  and  frequently  95  per  cent,  or  more  of 
pure  carbon.  -  It  burns  slowly,  emitting  intense  heat,  little  flame,  and 
almost  no  smoke.  China  is  said  to  possess  considerable  fields  of  an- 
thracite yet  unexploited. 

Pennsylvania  produces  53  times  as  much  anthracite  as  all  the  rest 
of  the  world,  yet  nature  has  wasted  99  per  cent,  of  what  Pennsyl- 
vania once  had,  for  the  coal  now  left  in  the  hills  of  Pennsylvania  was 
once  the  bottoms  of  the  valleys.  Geologists  have  said  that  at  a 
remote  period  the  coal  bearing  strata  of  that  state  were  thrown  up  into 
vast  undulations  or  huge  wrinkles,  and  that  the  action  of  the  weather 
and  the  water  washed  down  the  higher  parts  and  deposited  them  in 
the  valleys  and  in  the  sea.  The  water  courses  formed  where  the 
greatest  wear  had  been,  with  the  result  that  rivers  now  flow  where 
mountains  once  stood  and  mountains  now  stand  where  valleys  once 
were,  and  in  this  wear  and  tear  all  but  about  one  per  cent,  of  the 
original  coal  deposits  were  torn  down  and  deposited  as  ''ooze"  in 
the  valleys  and  the  sea. 

The  anthracite  production  of  the  United  States  is  equal  to  its  gold 
and  silver  supply,  and  when  we  consider  how  vitally  important  coal 
is  in  the  production  of  iron  and  steel  and  for  furnishing  power  for 


498  THE   MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

factories  the  question  may  well  be  asked,  is  not  the  coal  of  as  much 
importance  as  the  precious  metals? 

Graphite  is  coal  deprived  of  all  its  gaseous  matter,  retaining  but 
little  of  its  carbon  together  with  all  its  ash.  It  is  practically  incom- 
bustible and  of  no  use  as  a  fuel. 

Coke  Manufacture.  When  bituminous  coal  is  heated  in  an  oven 
nearly  all  the  volatile  matter  is  drawn  off  and  the  remainder  is  known 
as  coke.  Only  those  kinds  of  bituminous  coal  are  available  for  coke 
that  melt  and  run  together  when  heated.  Coke  is  hard  and  gives  a 
ringing  sound  when  struck,  and  is  spongy,  due  to  the  formation  of 
the  gas.  When  manufactured  as  a  by-product  at  gas  plants  it  is  used 
for  heating  or  the  production  of  steam.  Coke,  especially  manufac- 
tured, is  used  to  melt  pig  iron  in  cupolas  and  smelt  iron,  copper,  or 
lead  in  blast  furnaces.  Coke  was  first  successfully  used  in  the  man- 
ufacture of  pig  iron  by  Abraham  Darby  of  England  in  1735,  and 
although  he  produced  an  excellent  quality  of  iron,  the  charcoal 
interests  raised  such  a  hue  and  cry  that  it  did  not  come  into  general 
use  for  some  years.  William  Firmstone  is  credited  with  having  been 
the  first  (1835)  in  tne  United  States  to  make  pig  iron  from  coke. 

Coking  in  England  and  the  United  States  is  carried  on  in  the 
11  beehive"  oven.  The  beehive  is  10  or  12  feet  in  diameter,  and 
from  6  to  8  feet  high,  usually  built  of  stone  and  lined  with  fire  brick. 
There  is  an  opening  at  the  top  for  the  escape  of  the  gases  and  the 
admission  of  the  charge  and  one  at  the  side  closed  by  an  iron  door 
through  which  the  finished  product  is  drawn.  The  average  charge 
is  3)4  to  4  tons  of  raw  coal.  The  first  time  the  oven  is  charged  it  is 
necessary  to  ignite  it,  but  after  the  oven  is  once  started,  the  heat 
from  the  adjacent  walls  ignites  the  gases  in  the  coal,  causing  a  puff 
like  a  powder  explosion.  After  24  hours  the  air  supply  is  shut  off, 
and  nothing  left  but  the  holes  for  the  escape  of  the  gas.  Furnace 
coke  is  heated  about  48  hours  and  foundry  coke  about  72  hours. 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  499 

The  ovens  are  arranged  in  the  form  of  numerous  cavities  in  a  oank, 
having  steps  like  a  terrace.  On  the  top  step  runs  a  track  carrying  the 
cars  or  carts  of  coal  which  charge  the  ovens  through  openings  in  the 
top.  On  the  second  step  are  the  workmen,  who  with  iron  rakes 
draw  out  the  coke,  quench  it  with  water  and  load  it  into  freight  cars 
on  the  step  below.  The  coal  is  not  consumed,  but,  like  the  process 
of  converting  wood  into  charcoal,  only  burned  enough  to  drive  off  the 
volatile  matter. 

Continental  Europe  is  much  ahead  of  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States  in  the  economical  management  of  her  coke  ovens, 
which  are  massive  structures  of  fire  brick  with  side  and  bottom  flues 
arranged  to  utilize  and  consume  gases  wasted  by  the  beehive 
method.  They  work  much  quicker,  yield  more  coke  from  a  given 
amount  of  coal,  and  are  able  to  use  coal  of  a  poorer  grade.  The  util- 
ization of  the  by-products  has  become  so  important  that  some  con- 
cerns offer  to  convert  coal  into  coke  in  exchange  for  the  permission 
to  utilize  the  waste  gases,  tar,  and  ammonia. 

The  United  States  census  report  of  1850  shows  but  four  coke- 
making  establishments  and  these  were  at  Connellsville,  Pa.  The 
industry  grew  rapidly,  and  in  1871  the  H.  C.  Frick  Coke  Company 
was  organized,  which  now  controls  the  output  of  that  region.  The 
company,  consisting  of  H.  C.  Frick,  A.  O.  Tinsman,  and  Joseph 
Rist,  purchased  300  acres  of  land  near  Mount  Pleasant  and  erected 
50  ovens.  In  1900  it  had  grown  to  a  capitalization  of  $10,000,000, 
and  controlled  80  per  cent,  of  the  20,462  ovens,  employing  25,000 
men,  in  operation  in  that  region, —  a  wonderful  tribute  to  the  energy 
and  executive  ability  of  the  managers.  The  Connellsville  region  has 
been  the  scene  of  much  violence,  but  the  coal  lands  which  25  or  30 
years  ago  were  selling  for  $15  an  acre  are  now  bringing  from  $2000 
to  $3000  an  acre  and  are  hard  to  get  at  that  price. 

Coal  Supply  and  Consumption.    When  we  consider  the  enormous 


500         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

rapidity  with  which  the  consumption  of  coal  is  increasing,  the  supply 
of  the  world's  fuel  may  well  merit  a  little  consideration.  In  1831 
the  annual  coal  production  of  Great  Britain  was  24,000,000  tons. 
The  estimated  production  of  1901  was  240,000,000  tons.  In  1831 
Great  Britain  consumed  one  ton  of  coal  for  each  inhabitant.  In  1901 
the  coal  consumption  was  six  times  as  great,  and  the  rate  of  increase 
was  fifteen  times  as  great  as  the  increase  of  population.  In  300 
years  England  has  produced  10,101,000,000  tons  of  coal  and  it  has 
been  predicted  by  those  who  delight  in  taking  a  gloomy  view  of 
things  that  by  1945  her  coal  mines  can  no  longer  be  worked  at  a 
profit  and  that  she  will  be  compelled  to  obtain  her  fuel  from  some 
other  country,  perhaps  China,  for  in  China  there  are  vast  fields  of 
coal  that  have  not  been  worked  at  all.  Just  at  present  the  problem 
is  receiving  a  great  deal  of  attention,  for  the  mines  of  Great  Britain 
are  no  longer  able  to  produce  enough  for  the  consumption  of  that 
country  and  Pennsylvania  coal  has  been  used  to  generate  gas  to  light 
foggy  London. 

In  1840  the  United  States  consumed  about  one  ton  of  coal  to 
every  six  persons.  To-day  she  is  using  eighteen  times  as  much,  and 
the  increase  since  1890  alone  has  been  more  than  50  per  cent.  It 
was  estimated  by  General  Wistar  some  time  ago  that  if  the  coal  con- 
sumption of  the  United  States  increased  10  per  cent,  annually  for  25 
years,  then  5  per  cent,  annually  for  50  years  and  3  per  cent,  annually 
for  25  years  following,  it  would  in  100  years,  i.  e.,  in  1991,  practically 
exhaust  the  estimated  supply.  Well,  since  1891  the  coal  consump- 
tion has  exceeded  his  calculations.  As  the  magnitude  of  the  problem 
dawns  upon  the  industrial  world  and  fuel  increases  in  price,  various 
economies  will  be  practiced.  It  is  estimated  that  for  every  ton  of 
coal  produced  I  l/2  tons  are  wasted  in  the  form  of  dust,  slack  coal, 
and  pillars  of  coal  left  to  support  the  roof.  Considerable  quantities 
of  coal  dust  are  now  mixed  with  tar,  pressed  into  bricks,  and  used  as 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  5OI 

fuel.  The  enormous  volumes  of  gases  daily  going  to  waste  from  the 
blast  furnaces  can  be  utilized  by  gas  engines,  converted  into  elec- 
tricity, and  distributed  where  it  will  furnish  motive  power  for  facto- 
ries of  various  kinds.  Germany  is  doing  this,  but  it  is  believed  that 
2,000,000  horse  power  is  annually  wasted  in  the  escaping  gases  from 
the  blast  furnaces  of  Great  Britain.  In  making  each  ton  of  coke, 
8000  cubic  feet  of  gas  is  given  off  and  only  half  of  it  consumed. 
All  the  best  plants  now  utilize  their  blast  furnace  gases. 

Some  Interesting  Equivalents.  Coal  has  crept  so  quietly  and 
unobtrusively  into  the  industrial  life  of  the  world  that  many  of  us 
rarely  stop  to  consider  how  important  it  has  become.  Every  ton  of 
pig  iron  ready  for  export  represents  at  least  two  tons  of  coal,  and 
every  ton  of  iron  or  steel  bars,  six  or  eight  tons  of  coal.  Our 
modern  systems  of  transportation  could  not  do  without  it,  for  it  is 
estimated  that  the  locomotives  of  the  United  States  and  Canada  now 
consume  at  least  64,000,000  tons  of  coal  annually,  or  as  much  as  the 
annual  production  of  the  whole  world  not  so  very  many  years  ago. 
One  half  the  bituminous  coal  of  the  United  States  is  used  on  rail- 
ways and  steamships.  Trade  and  industry  would  be  paralyzed  if 
deprived  of  its  help.  Burned  in  the  furnaces  of  the  quadruple  ex- 
pansion engines  of  an  ocean,  freighter,  a  piece  of  anthracite  the 
size  of  a  hickory  nut  develops  power  enough  to  propel  one  ton  of 
the  vessel's  displacement  one  mile.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  freight 
carrying  vessels  of  from  10,000  to  12,000  tons  displacement,  moving 
at  from  10  to  12  knots  an  hour,  to  average  from  .032  to  .039  of  a 
pound  of  coal  per  ton  of  displacement  per  knot.  On  land  the  best 
modern  engines  will  with  one  pound  of  coal  do  the  work  of  one 
horse  for  an  hour.  Mulhall  says,'  "  Human  energy  is  by  common 
consent  fixed  at  300  foot-tons  daily  for  a  man,  200  for  a  woman,  and 
100  for  a  child  between  10  and  16  years  of  age."  If  the  figures  of 
this  famous  statistician  are  correct,  and  if  all  the  able-bodied  working 


502  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

men  of  the  world  were  enslaved  and  compelled  to  labor  arduously  10 
hours  a  day  300  days  in  the  year  for  the  benefit  of  society,  they 
could  not  begin  to  carry  the  burden  borne  by  coal.  One  pound  of 
coal  most  advantageously  employed  would  perform  the  work  of  33 
such  slaves  for  an  hour.  Suppose  such  a  slave  to  be  pumping  water 
at  the  mouth  of  a  mine  in  competition  with  an  Allis  engine:  — 

One  pound  of  coal=one  horse-power-hour  (1,980,000  foot-pounds). 
One  horse-power-hour=33  man-power-hours  (60,000  foot-pounds). 
2240  pounds  of  coal=73,92O  man-power-hours. 
73,920  man-power-hours=  7392  lo-hour  days  of  labor. 
7392  lo-hour  days  of  labor=24.64  years  of  labor. 

One  ton  of  coal  at  the  mouth  of  a  mine  weighs  2240  pounds  and 
can  be  bought  for  a  dollar,  hence  it  follows  that  such  a  slave  compet- 
ing with  a  steam  engine  at  the  mouth  of  a  mine  would  be  required  to 
work  24.64  years  to  do  as  much  as  one  ton  of  coal,  or  at  the  rate  of 
about  four  cents  a  year. 

The  world's  production  of  coal  and  lignite  for  the  last  year  of  the 
nineteenth  century  approximated  725,000,000  tons.  The  earth's 
population  is  estimated  at  1,500,000,000  souls.  Suppose  that  the 
poorer  grades  of  coal  and  lignite  as  nearly  equal  the  energy  contained 
in  the  best  grades  of  coal,  as  the  women,  infants,  lame,  halt,  and 
blind  of  the  earth's  population  equal  the  power  of  the  able-bodied 
men:  if  then  this  coal  were  consumed  under  the  most  economical 
conditions,  it  would  give  energy  equivalent  to  53,592,000,000,000 
man-power-hours,  to  equal  which,  the  entire  population  of  this  planet 
would  be  compelled  to  toil  35,728  hours  or  3,572  lo-hour  days,  or 
1 1.9  years  of  300  days  labor. 

To  sum  it  up,  the  coal  production  of  a  single  year  is  able  to  per- 
form as  much  work  as  the  entire  population  could  do  in  more  than 
10  years.  Does  Civilization  owe  any  recognition  to  the  genius  of 
the  inventors  which  has  brought  "  Steam  Engine,  Coal  &  Co."  to 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  503 

such  a  high  state  of  efficiency  that  the  world's  commerce  has  in- 
creased more  than  1200  per  cent,  in  a  century,  while  its  population 
has  only  rather  more  than  doubled?  Yet  all  this  is  not  obtained 
without  effort  or  danger,  and  the  coal  that  warms  a  cheery  home  is 
not  infrequently  obtained  at  the  risk  or  even  loss  of  life  or  limb  of  a 
workman,  who  toiled  hundreds  of  miles  away,  thousands  of  feet 
below  the  surface,  and  faced  terrors  which  only  the  initiated  can  fully 
appreciate  and  understand. 

Dangers  and  Fatalities  in  Mining.  The  report  of  the  govern- 
ment inspector  of  British  mines  for  the  decade  1880-90  showed  that, 
to  say  nothing  of  those  injured,  about  one  thousand  miners  were 
killed  annually  in  the  mines  of  Great  Britain.  A  fertile  source  of 
accident  from  falling  bodies  are  tree  trunks  in  a  vertical  position,  the 
wood  of  which  decayed  and  left  the  bark  to  be  turned  into  coal  while 
the  hollow  was  filled  with  shale,  sandstone,  etc.  When  the  coal 
underneath  is  removed  all  that  holds  the  mass  of  sandstone  and  shale 
in  place  is  the  adhesion  of  the  thin  rind  of  coal,  bark,  and  when  this 
gives  way  the  trunk  falls  of  its  own  weight,  frequently  with  disas- 
trous results,  for  such  formations  are  of  frequent  occurrence,  and  in 
the  dim  light  of  the  mine  it  is  often  impossible  to  discern  them.  In 
the  early  days  of  coal  mining  explosions  of  fire  damp  were  ascribed 
by  the  superstitious  miner  to  supernatural  agencies.  Near  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century  Spedding  discovered  that  a  red  heat  would 
not  ignite  fire  damp;  it  must  be  brought  in  actual  contact  with 
flame.  Humboldt  in  1796  and  Clanny  in  1806  invented  lamps  in 
which  the  air  that  fed  the  flame  was  made  to  bubble  up  through  a 
liquid,  but  the  lamp  was  cumbersome,  expensive,  unpopular,  and  the 
workmen,  ignorant  and  heedless,  went  on  merrily  with  their  naked 
lights  until  Sir  Humphry  Davy  in  1815  brought  out  his  safety  lamp. 
That  invention  with  its  improvements  has  saved  thousands  of  lives, 
for  "  The  introduction  or  exposure  of  a  naked  light  for  even  so  much 


504  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

as  a  second  is  sufficient  to  cause  an  explosion  of  the  mass.  Doors 
are  blown  down,  props  and  tubbing  are  charred  up,  and  the  volume 
of  smoke  rushing  up  by  the  nearest  shaft  and  overthrowing  the 
engine  house  and  other  structures  at  the  mouth  conveys  its  own  sad 
message  to  those  at  the  surface,  of  the  dreadful  catastrophe  that  has 
happened  below.  Perhaps  all  that  remains  of  some  of  the  workers 
consists  of  charred  and  scorched  bodies  scarcely  recognizable  as 
human  beings.  Others  escape  with  scorched  arms  or  legs  and  singed 
hair  to  tell  the  terrible  tale  to  those  who  were  more  fortunately 
absent."  *  To  render  the  calamity,  if  possible,  still  worse,  a  flood  of 
choke  damp  (carbon  dioxide)  is  caused  by  the  combustion  of  the  fire 
damp,  and  the  horrors  of  suffocation  are  added  to  the  terrible  scene. 
World-Production  of  Coal.  The  following  table  shows  the- world's 
production  of  coal  and  lignite  at  the  close  of  the  century.  It  is 
highly  significant  that  three  countries,  the  United  States,  Great  Brit- 
ain, and  Germany,  produce  80  per  cent,  of  the  world's  coal  and  70  per 
cent,  of  its  iron. 

Country  Years  Tons  Percentage 

United  States  1899  230,838,973  31.96 

Great  Britain  1899  220,085,303  30.47 

Germany  1899  135,824,427  18.81 

France  1898  32,356,104  4.48 

Belgium  1899  21,917,740  3.04 

Austria- Hungary  1898  375786,963  5.23 

Russia  1898  12,862,033  1.78 

Sweden  1898  '  236,277  .03 

Spain                                          .       1899  2,742,389  .38 

Italy  1898  34i,327  -°5 

Canada  1899  4.076,779  -57 

South  African  Republic  1898  1,938,424  .27 

Natal  1898  387,811  .05 

India  1898  4,136,813  -57 

Greece  1898  17,310 

New  South  Wales  1899  4,597,028  .64 

Other  Australasia  1898  1,601,968  .22 

Japan  1897  5,647,7s1  -78 

Algeria  1898  200 

'     All  other  countries  ^99  4,849,380  .67 

Total  722,245,000  100.00 


*  Edward  A.  Martin. 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  505 

.GAS    MANUFACTURE. 

(i  Often  have  I  swept  backward  in  imagination  six  thousand 
years,  and  stood  beside  our  Great  Ancestor,  as  he  gazed  for  the  first 
time  upon  the  going  down  of  the  sun.  What  strange  sensations 
must  have  swept  through  his  bewildered  mind  as  he  watched  the  last 
departing  ray  of  the  sinking  orb,  unconscious  whether  he  should  ever 
behold  its  return.  Wrapt  in  a  maze  of  thought,  strange  and  start- 
ling, his  eye  long  lingers  about  the  point  at  which  the  sun  had  slowly 
faded  from  his  view.  A  mysterious  darkness,  hitherto  unexperi- 
enced, creeps  over  the  face  of  nature.  The  beautiful  scenes  of 
earth,  which,  through  the  swift  hours  of  the  first  wonderful  day  of  his 
existence,  had  so  charmed  his  senses,  are  slowly  fading  one  by  one 
from  his  dimmed  vision.  A  gloom  deeper  than  that  which  covers 
earth  steals  across  the  mind  of  earth's  solitary  inhabitant."* 

For  thousands  of  years  the  labor  of  man  practically  ceased  with 
the  going  down  of  the  sun,  and  his  wood  fire  or  his  torch  were  his 
first  crude  efforts  to  extend  the  day  for  his  labor  or  amusement. 
The  rude  lamp  made  from  a  shell  partly  filled  with  the  fat  from  the 
game  he  killed  or  the  oil  from  the  fish  he  caught,  with  fibers  of  bark 
or  a  rush  for  a  wick,  succeeded  the  torch.  The  contrast  between 
the  surrounding  gloom  and  the  dim  light  of  such  a  lamp  is  not 
greater  than  between  the  lamp  itself  and  the  artificial  light  apparatus 
of  to-day. 

Coal  Gas.  If  any  vegetable  or  animal  matter  be  inclosed  in  a 
retort  and  raised  to  a  red  heat  it  will  give  off  gas,  water,  tar,  and 
leave  a  residue  of  coke  or  charcoal.  This  is  the  principle  employed 
in  the  manufacture  of  illuminating  gas.  Coal  had  been  used  for  hun- 
dreds of  years  before  the  practical  application  of  coal  gas  was  made 
for  lighting  purposes.  William  Murdoch  of  Cornwall  in  1792  lighted 
his  house  with  gas  made- from  coal.  In  1798  he  lighted  the  shops  of 

*Gen.  O.  M.  Mitchel. 


506          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

-> 

Boulton,  Watt  and  Co.,  and  the  system  gradually  came  into  use, 
although  some  rather  serious  accidents  retarded  its  rapid  adoption. 
The  House  of  Parliament  was  lighted  by  gas  in  1813,  the  streets  of 
London  in  1815,  and  those  of  Paris  shortly  afterward.  Gas  was  used 
in  Baltimore  in  1816,  in  Boston  in  1822,  in  New  York  in  1825,  and 
the  manufacture  of  gas  was  probably  the  greatest  crfemical  enterprise 
of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Process  of  Manufacture.  In  the  making  of  coal  gas,  caking 
coal  is  commonly  used.  It  does  not  give  so  rich  a  gas  as  the  cannel 
coal,  but  it  is  abundant  and  cheap,  and  the  coke  produced  can  be 
used  for  other  purposes.  The  coal  is  placed  in  retorts  heated  by  a 
coke  fire.  From  the  retort  a  tube  (standpipe)  leads  upward  to  the 
hydraulic  main,  a  tube  or  reservoir  kept  half  filled  with  tar.  That 
the  gas  may  not  rush  backward  when  the  retort  is  opened,  the  end  of 
the  standpipe  empties  two  or  three  inches  below  the  level  of  the  tar, 
which  forms  a  gas  check.  In  the  hydraulic  main  the  hot  gas  deposits 
a  part  of  its  ammonia,  water,  and  tar,  and  then  an  exhauster  working 
on  the  principle  of  an  air  pump,  forces  it  through  a  series  of  bent 
tubes  called  the  condenser,  where  it  gives  up  more  of  the  tar,  water, 
and  ammonia,  which  are  led  off  to  separate  receptacles.  The  gas 
next  passes  through  the  washer,  where  jets  of  water  remove  more 
tar,  ammonia,  and  sulphur,  and  then  to  the  purifier,  where  lime  re- 
moves the  sulphur  compounds  and  carbonic  acid.  From  the  purifier 
it  passes  to  the  gas  holder,  a  familiar  object  in  every  city.  A  good 
illustration  of  the  gas  holder  is  a  tumbler  inverted  in  a  basin  of  water, 
the  tumbler  being  kept  afloat  by  the  imprisoned  air  underneath  it. 
When  the  gas  reservoir  is  full  the  gas  holder  is  buoyed  up,  but  as  the 
gas  is  used  it  settles  down  and  preserves  a  constant  pressure  of  gas 
in  the  lines,  a  very  desirable  consideration. 

Water  gas,  introduced  about  1875,  is  produced  by  decomposing 
steam  by  intense  heat  and  mixing  the  hydrogen  evolved  with  carbonic 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  507 

oxide  gas.  The  resulting  mixture  has  enough  heat  but  little 
illuminating  power,  so  it  is  enriched  by  passing  it  over  hot  coke  on 
which  crude  petroleum  is  being  volatilized.  This  converts  the  mix- 
ture into  a  permanent  illuminating  gas  at  much  less  cost  than  coal 
gas.  The  gas  can  be  made  as  rich  as  desirable,  but  ordinarily  it 
would  appear  as  though  the  manufacturer  of  water  gas  had  taken  a 
lesson  from  his  milkman.  Water  gas  derives  its  name  from  the  fact 
that  three  fifths  of  its  weight  and  three  fourths  of  its  bulk  is  made 
up  of  the  oxygen  and  hydrogen  obtained  from  the  steam.  Ordi- 
narily, it  has  neither  the  illuminating  nor  the  heating  power  of  coal 
gas  and  is  also  more  poisonous. 

Fuel  gas,  or  producer  gas,  is  a  by-product  in  the  manufacture  of 
water  gas.  It  is  not  available  for  lighting  purposes  but  can  be  used, 
as  its  name  indicates,  for  fuel,  although  it  has  not  the  heating  power 
of  either  coal  or  water  gas. 

Natural  gas  is  the  gaseous  form  of  bitumen  and  was  known  to  the 
Fire  Worshipers  of  Persia  thousands  of  years  ago.  The  burning 
springs  of  Asia  Minor  and  fires  of  Baku  on  the  shores  of  the  Caspian 
have  been  described  by  travelers  ever  since  the  days  of  Marco  Polo. 
On  the  North  American  Continent,  burning  springs  were  early  no- 
ticed, especially  by  the  French  missionary  explorers.  Apparently, 
the  first  attempt  to  use  natural  gas  was  at  Fredonia,  N.  Y.,  where  in 
1824  wells  were  dug  into  the  rock  strata  and  the  gas  utilized  for  heat 
and  fuel. 

Some  idea  of  the  earth's  strata  is  necessary  to  understand  the 
theories  now  generally  accepted  for  natural  gas  and  petroleum. 
These  suppose  the  strata  of  the  earth  to  be  bent  or  deflected,  form- 
ing folds  or  wrinkles.  If  in  such  a  formation  there  is  an  impervious 
layer  of  rock  or  coal  underlain  by  a  thick  stratum  of  porous  rock  or 
loose  formation,  we  have,  if  petroleum  be  present,  the  necessary 
conditions  for  a  "  gas  pocket."  (See  illustration.) 


508 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


NATURAL  GAS. 


Location.  Oil  and  gas  do  not  lie  in  open  and  free  pockets,  but 
are  held  in  the  porous  rocks  as  water  is  held  in  a  sponge.  Neither  is 
oil  always  found  accompanying  gas,  but  it  usually  is  rrbt  far  distant. 
The  gas,  being  lighter,  is  always  at  the  top  of  the  c^rve  (anticline). 

Next    comes  a  stra- 
Earth's Surface.  a.         lr  .  $       '\    \\   \A    ' 

place  by  the  pressure 
of  salt  water  of  a 
peculiar  bitter  taste. 
In  the  diagram,  if  a 
well  be  drilled  at  #, 
gas  will  be  obtained 
and  as  it  is  held  there 
under  pressure  from 
the  oil  and  water,  when  a  vent  is  offered  it  rushes  out  with  consider- 
able force.  If  the  anticline  is  tapped  at  b,  oil  instead  of  gas  will  be 
obtained,  and  if  the  well  were  continued  deeper,  salt  water  would  be 
found.  In  fact,  nearly  every  oil  well  yields  some  salt  water,  and 
some  oil  wells  that  have  become  exhausted,  are  profitably  worked  as 
salt  wells.  The  pressure  under  which  the  gas  is  stored  is  sometimes 
so  enormous  that  the  flow  from  the  wells  cannot  be  controlled  for  a 
considerable  time  after  gas  has  been  "struck."  It  is  not  an  uncom- 
mon thing  for  a  strong  "  gaser "  to  shoot  the  whole  "string  of 
tools"  out  of  the  hole  through  the  derrick,  and  when  it  is  recalled 
that  a  string  of  drilling  tools  weighs  anywhere  from  2000  to  4000 
pounds,  the  force  required  may  be  realized.  The  gas  accompanying 
oil  wells  is  frequently  a  troublesome  factor  when  it  comes  time  to 
lower  the  "  torpedo  "  to  "  shoot  "  the  well.  Gas  wells  are  drilled  in 
the  same  manner  as  those  for  oil,  which  will  be  described  later.  The 
gas  is  conveyed  from  the  well  in  a  "pipe  line  "  made  of  joints  of 
iron  tubing  the  ends  of  which  screw  into  "  collars,"  frequently  form- 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  509 

ing  a  continuous  line  many  miles  in  length,  enabling  the  gas  wells  of 
one  state  or  province  to  furnish  light  or  heat  for  the  cities  of  an- 
other. 

Natural  gas  is  a  poor  illuminant  but  has  great  heating  power,  and 
for  a  time  was  so  extensively  used  for  manufacturing  purposes,  nota- 
bly at  Pittsburg,  that  it  materially  reduced  the  output  of  coal  and 
became  a  factor  in  industrial  life  second  only  to  coal  and  the  steam 
engine.  But  the  supply  is  gradually  failing  and  manufacturers  are 
being  forced  to  return  to  coal. 

PETROLEUM. 

The  petroleum  industry,  although  a  development  of  the  last  half 
century,  deals  with  an  article  -that  has  been  known  in  other  lands 
from  time  immemorial.  In  China  it  was  in  use  before  the  dawn  of 
written  history,  and  the  famous  petroleum  springs  near  Baku  on  the 
western  shore  of  the  Caspian  Sea  have  been  known  from  the  earliest 
times.  Pliny  and  Herodotus  each  knew  or  had  heard  of  petroleum, 
and  in  the  city  of  Genoa,  centuries  agcr,  a  kind  of  petroleum  oil  was 
used  in  the  rude  lamps  of  the  time. 

Even  gold  mining,  with  all  the  romance  which  envelops  it,  cannot 
parallel  the  sudden  transitions  from  poverty  to  wealth,  or  the  specula- 
tion and  feverish  excitement  attendant  upon  the  development  of  a 
new  oil  field.  Perhaps  a  worthy  historian  of  the  industry  may  arise 
able  to  do  justice  to  the  prospectors,  who,  like  Mother  Carey's 
chickens,  have  been  flitting  here,  there,  yonder,  dipping  now  into 
the  soil  of  this  part  of  the  country,  now  into  that,  or  making  trips  to 
foreign  lands,  and  all  the  while  keeping  the  telegraph  wires  and 
cables  hot  with  quivering,  exciting  messages  to  one  another  of  their 
pilgrimages  in  search  of  that  fascinating  article,  petroleum,  whose 
by-products  are  almost  as  multitudinous  as  the  sands  of  the  sea. 

Petroleum  an  Incidental  Product.     It  seems  strange  that  a  prod- 


5io 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


uct  now  of  such  value  was  once  considered  by  those  that  encoun- 
tered it  as  big  a  nui- 
sance as  the  forests 
which  the  early  settlers 
cut  into  logs  and 
burned  to  get  out  of 
the  way.  In  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  numerous  salt 
wells  were  drilled 
along  the  western  slope 
THE  CITY  OF  OIL  TANKS.  of  the  Alleghanies,  and 

frequently  the  mine  owners  were  forced  to  abandon  the  scene  because 
of  the  appearance  of  a  green  slimy  substance  that  accumulated  on 
pools,  canals,  and  reservoirs,  greatly  to  their  disgust.  In  1854  Dr. 
Gesner  obtained  an  illuminating  oil  from  coal,  and  a  Long  Island 
company  was  formed  to  manufacture  a  species  of  kerosene  for  illum- 
inating purposes  with  such  startling  success  that  within  a  few  years 
there  were  numerous  enterprises  of  the  kind  set  up  within  the  soft 
coal  fields,  destined  to  become  obsolete  and  a  loss  to  their  investors 
because  of  the  recognition  of  the  value  of  petroleum.  In  1857 
twelve  barrels  of  petroleum  were  shipped  to  New  York,  and  this  is 
said  to  be  the  beginning  of  its  history  as  an  illuminant.  Never  be- 
fore in  the  history  of  commerce  has  an  industry  so  quickly  sprung  in- 
to life  and  unparalleled  activity  as  this.  Witness  the  following  table  :  — 


Year 

Production 

Lowest  Monthly 

Barrels 

Average  Price 

1859 

1,873 

$20.00 

1860 

547,439 

2-75 

1870 

5,308,046 

3-15 

1880 

26,027,637 

.80 

1890 

33,163,513 

.67^ 

1898 

60,568,081 

Highest  Monthly 
Average  Price 

Average 
Yearly  Price 

Wells 
Completed 

$20.00 

$20.00 

19.25 
4-52^ 

9.60 
3-89 

.05 


.86^ 


4217 
6435 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  51  I 

Producing  Areas.  Now  there  are  annually  produced,  according  * 
to  the  office  of  the  Geological  Survey,  more  than  5,000,000,000  gal- 
lons of  petroleum,  of  which  amount  2,500,000,000  are  from  the 
United  States,  2,250,000,000  from  Russia,  and  the  remainder  dis- 
tributed among  a  dozen  different  countries,  including  Austria,  87,- 
000,000;  Sumatra,  72,000,000;  Java,  30,000,000;  Canada,  29,000,- 
ooo.  Numerous  single  oil  wells  have  within  twenty  years  produced 
oil  to  the  value  of  more  than  $1,000,000,  and  when  the  capital  invest- 
ed is  taken  into  consideration  the  dividends  of  the  richest  gold  mines 
of  the  world  cannot  compare  with  the  returns  from  the  liquid  wealth. 

Rock  Oil  Company.  When  the  value  of  petroleum  came  to  be 
appreciated  the  famous  Rock  Oil  Company,  1855-56,  was  the  earliest 
in  the  field,  but  there  were  so  many  hindrances  to  its  success  that  it 
almost  became  a  byword.  It  was  with  this  company  that  Edwin  L. 
Drake  was  connected  as  an  employee,  afterward  decorated  with  the 
title  of  "  Colonel"  to  help  give  dignity  to  the  company.  Meeting 
with  no  success  the  company  was  afterward  merged  into  the  Seneca 
Oil  Company  with  Drake  as  president.  The  company  had  a  capital 
of  $1000  and  paid  its  president  a  salary  equal  to  its  capital  and  from 
this  humble  beginning  in  a  little  more  than  a  generation  sprung 
petroleum  capitalizations  equal  to  more  than  $500,000,000,  with 
30,000  miles  of  pipe  line,  more  than  10,000  tank  cars,  and  100  ocean 
steamers. 

Drake's  first  derrick  in  the  Pennsylvania  oil  field  was  erected  near 
Titusville  in  the  summer  of  1859.  ^  was  boarded  to  the  top  and 
resembled  nothing  in  the  world  as  much  as  a  clumsy  Cleopatra's  nee- 
dle minus  its  hieroglyphics.  The  men  lived,  slept,  ate,  worked, 
within  this  one  building,  and  the  president  of  the  company  secured 
accommodations  for  himself,  his  wife,  two  children,  and  the  horses 
for  about  $i  a  day,  a  fairly  good  indication  of  the  wealth  of  the  con- 
cern and  the  luxury  of  the  country. 


512          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

The  men  worked  with  tools  weighing  300  pounds  attached  to  a 
spring  pole.  The  efforts  of  the  workmen  pulled  down  the  end  of  the 
pole  and  caused  the  drill  to  strike  a  blow.  On  releasing  their  hold,  the 
elastic  force  of  the  pole  raised  the  tools  ready  to  be  drawn  again  for 
another  stroke.  They  drilled  through  47  feet  of  gravel  and  22  feet 
of  shale  rock  without  success  and  stopped  Saturday  night  at  70  feet. 
The  capital  and  credit  of  the  concern  were  about  exhausted  and 
Drake  was  in  the  depths  of  gloom  and  despair.  Sunday,  Drake 
strolled  over  to  his  well  and  was  rendered  speechless  at  the  sight,  for 
from  the  opening  was  issuing  steadily  a  stream  of  dark  and  viscous 
wealth.  The  news  rapidly  spread  and  soon  the  hill  was  black  with 
excited  people  running  coatless,  hatless,  coming  on  horseback,  or 
driving  in  on  anything  that  would  hold  to  wheels  to  view  the  phe- 
nomenon;  and  well  they  might  be  interested,  for  within  48  hours 
the  well  was  pumping  20  barrels  an  hour  and  the  oil  was  worth  $20 
a  barrel.  The  production  fell  off  in  a  few  weeks  to  less  than  ten 
barrels  a  day,  its  total  output  the  first  calendar  year  being  only  1800 
barrels.  The  tools  used  in  this  first  and  famous  well  were  years 
afterward  purchased  by  Lewis  Emery,  Jr.,  and  are  now  on  exhibition 
in  a  museum  in  Bradford,  Pennsylvania.  The  news  of  Drake's  suc- 
cess spread  rapidly  and  numerous  wells  followed,  but  they  were  all 
put  down  by  the  primitive  method  of  the  spring  pole  and  were  very 
shallow  indeed  compared  with  the  depths  now  reached. 

With  a  strange  fatality  that  seems  inseparably  connected  with  that 
business,  many  operators  stopped  short,  discouraged  and  poverty- 
stricken,  when  only  20  or  30  feet  from  what  later  developments  have 
proved  was  almost  fabulous  wealth.  For  some  reason  Drake  neglect- 
ed the  golden  opportunities  lying  at  his  very  feet  and  failed  to  secure 
other  territory. 

Present  System  of  Operation.  The  inventive  genius  of  the 
operators  devised  the  present  system,  which  came  into  general  use 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES. 


513 


^fQ  /?^ff«  «  gri 

STRING  OF  TOOLS. 


about  1866-68.  It  consists  of  a  derrick  about 
20  feet  square  at  the  base  and  from  75  to  80 
feet  high,  having  in  the  top  a  pulley  over 
which  a  cable  passes,  to  one  end  of  which  is 
attached  the  "string  of  tools"  60  feet  or  more 
in  length  and  weighing  from  2000  to  4000 
pounds.  The  other  end  of  the  cable  is  at- 
tached to  a  horizontal  shaft  upon  which  it  is 
wound  or  unwound  at  will,  the  power  being 
furnished  by  steam  engines  of  from  15  to  25 
horse  power.  Directly  over  the  center  of  the 
derrick  and  the  hole  to  be  drilled,  is  one  end 
of  the  walking  beam,  about  25  feet  in  length, 
balanced  over  the  Samson  post.  The  cable 
is  clutched  by  a  device  attached  to  the  end  of 
the  walking  beam  within  the  derrick,  the  other 
end  of  the  walking  beam  being  attached  by  a 
pitman  to  a  wheel  turned  by  the  steam  engine. 
This  imparts  a  pumping  motion  to  the  walking 
beam,  which  raises  and  drops  the  tools  a  few 
inches  and  pounds  the  rock  into  fine  frag- 
ments. 

The  usual  "string  of  tools"  is  made  up 
of  a  bit  4  feet  long,  5  ^  inches  in  diameter, 
and  weighing  about  150  or  175  pounds.  The 
bit,  a  steel  drill  with  which  the  hole  is 
pounded  in  the  rock,  is  removed  from  time 
to  time,  heated  in  a  blacksmith's  forge,  ham- 
mered into  shape,  and  retempered.  The  bit 
screws  into  an  auger  stem,  a  shaft  about  40 
feet  long  and  weighing  from  I2OO  to  1500 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


pounds.  The  auger  stem  is  to  preserve  the  vertical  position  of  the 
drill  and  by  its  weight  give  force  to  the  blow  of  the  bit.  The  jars 
are  huge  flat  steel  links  6  or  8  feet  long  and  weighing  300  or  400 
pounds,  the  links  of  which  play  into  or  slide 
upon  each  other  and  have  a  movement  of 
about  9  or  10  inches.  They  divide  the  string 
of  tools  into  two  parts.  Above  the  jars 
comes  the  sinker-bar,  another  shaft  15  to  20 
feet  long  and  weighing  about  600  pounds. 
The  weight  of  the  sinker-bar  is  to  give  effi- 
ciency to  the  upward  jerk  of  the  upper  half  of 
the  jars,  the  chief  use  of  the  jars  being  to 
loosen  the  bit  in  the  hole,  for  if  it  sticks  a 
direct  pull  is  of  little  use  and  may  break  the 
cable,  leaving  the  whole  string  of  tools  in  the 
well. 

Accidents    frequently  occur,   especially  at 

in   screwing  tools  together  :  8,  i         ,  i  <-pi  »  i  i   ,,     i 

drilling  cable  held  by  clamps       great   depths.      The  tools   may  be  caught  by 

and    hung   from    temper-screw 

above;    9,  gauge  used  when       sliding  strata   of  rock   and    pinched.      A    new 

dressing  8-inch  bit.  L 

bit  a  trifle  larger  than   the  old   one  may  stick 

in  the  hole,  or  the  tools  or  rope  may  break  in  two,  leaving  a  mass  of 
steel  to  be  removed  before  further  progress  can  be  made.  Almost 
anything  can  be  removed  by  the  proper  "fishing  tools,"  and  there 
are  innumerable  clever  devices  designed  to  grasp  rope,  wood,  or 
metal,  and  tighten  their  hold  as  they  are  withdrawn,  and  when  it  is 
remembered  that  all  this  may  take  place  in  a  hole  2000  or  3000 
feet  deep  and  only  5^  inches  in  diameter  something  of  the  skill 
required  and  ingenuity  exercised  can  be  imagined. 

When  a  hole  a  few  feet  in  depth  has  been  made  the  tools  are  re- 
moved, water  is  turned  in  if  necessary,  and  the  bailer  or  sand-pump, 
an  iron  tube  with  a  valve  in  the  bottom,  is  lowered.  This  is  so  con- 


PRINCIPAL  DRILLING 
TOOLS. 

i,  8-inch  bit;  2,  5^  inch  bit; 
3,  auger-stem ;  4,  jars  ;  5, 
sinker-bar ;  6,  rope-socket ;  7, 
one  of  a  pair  of  wrenches  used 
in  screwing  tools  together  :  8, 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  515 

structed  that  when  the  tube  rests  in  the  bottom  of  the  hole  the  valve 
opens  and  the  pounded  rock  and  water  enter.  When  the  sand-pump 
is  raised,  the  valve  closes,  and  the  whole  is  drawn  to  the  surface. 
The  tools  are  lowered  and  the  process  repeated.  As  the  well  pro- 
gresses, lengths  of  pipe  or  casing  of  nearly  the  same  diameter  as  the 
hole  are  lowered  and  forced  in  to  shut  off  the  surface  water  and  pre- 
vent caving.  The  casing  is  usually  carried  down  until  it  rests  on 
the  first  oil-bearing  stratum  of  rock,  known  colloquially  as  "first 
sand." 

"  Striking  Oil."  If  the  "  sand  "  is  porous  rock  or  more  open 
formation  and  contains  oil  in  great  quantities,  under  heavy  pressure 
from  the  salt  water  it  may  gush  forth  in  a  stream  as  high  as  the  top 
of  the  derrick  and  flow  hundreds  of  barrels  an  hour.  The  Matthew 
and  Mevy  wells  of  McDonald,  Pennsylvania,  the  largest  in  the  Ap- 
palachian field,  are  credited  with  a  flow  of  1500  barrels  a  day,  and 
the  late  gusher  struck  near  Beaumont,  Texas,  has  been  variously 
estimated  at  from  15,000  to  25,000  barrels  per  day.  The  wells 
drilled  in  the  loose  gravel  formation  of  the  Baku  region,  which  Peter 
the  Great  wrested  from  Persia  200  years  ago,  are  said  to  have  yielded 
from  50,000  to  60,000  barrels  daily. 

"  Shooting"  a  Well.  In  order  to  break  up  the  porous  rock  and 
give  the  bottom  of  each  well  a  larger  draining  surface  a  quantity  of 
nitroglycerin  ranging  from  10  to  100  quarts,  according  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  "  sand,"  is  lowered  to  the  right  depth.  The  well,  if  it 
does  not  contain  enough  oil,  has  oil  poured  into  it  to  aid  in  confining 
the  force  of  the  explosion.  When  all  is  ready  the  go-devil,  a  cast 
iron  weight,  is  dropped,  which  falling  upon  a  cap  explodes  the  nitro- 
glycerin. The  oil  above  the  torpedo  is  thrown  out  and  bursts  in  a 
column  high  above  the  derrick,  descending  in  a  greenish  golden 
shower,  producing  in  the  sunlight  a  picture  not  easily  forgotten. 
The  oil  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  bottom  of  the  well  is  driven 


5i6 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


back  in  the  porous  rock  by  the  force  of  the  explosion  and  then  the 
reaction  forces  it  out  and  the  well  is  to  "  flow." 

Changes  in  the  formation  take  place  within  surprisingly  short  dis- 
tances and  a  non-productive  well  (duster)  was  drilled  within   300  feet 

of  the   Mevy  well  at    McDonald  while  the  latter 

was  yielding  15,000  barrels  a  day.  Enormous 
prices  have  been  paid  for  land  that  was  good  pro- 
ducing territory,  for  a  single  well  during  its  history 
has  been  known  to  produce  700,000  barrels  of  oil 
valued  at  more  than  $4,000,000.  Land  from 
which  farmers  could  scarcely  wring  a  living  and 
would  have  been  glad  to  sell  for  a  song,  have 
yielded  fortunes  to  their  successful  purchasers. 
George  Noble  leased  16  acres  in  1860  in  a  little 
valley  lying  along  Oil  Creek,  paying  for  the  lease 
$600,  and  soon  after  refused  $100,000  for  a  half 
interest,  and  his  profits  from  his  production,  with 
the  prices  of  crude  oil  ranging  from  $4  to  $13  a 
barrel,  ran  up  into  the  tens  of  thousands  daily. 
Near  Oil  Creek  one  man  bought  a  $50  lot  and  in  a  few  weeks  sold  it 
for  $5000.  Not  many  rods  away  a  purchaser  drilled  until  he  became 
discouraged  and  gave  it  up.  Later  developments  showed  that  he 
was  within  17  feet  of  $1,000,006.  The  Copley  well,  one  of  the  latest 
(1900)  Eastern  gushers  in  West  Virginia,  yielded  for  months  100 
barrels  an  hour,  yet  a  well  sunk  only  I  j£  miles  away  proved  a  com- 
plete duster. 

When  Drake's  well  was  first  put  down  near  Oil  City  there  were 
hundreds  of  farms  lying  along  Oil  Creek,  from  which  for  two  genera- 
tions the  inhabitants  had  hardly  obtained  a  decent  living.  Some  of 
the  ridiculous  sights  to  be  seen  can  be  well  imagined  when  such  peo- 
ple were  suddenly  transformed  into  millionaires. 


OIL  WELL  FLOWING 

AFTER   HAVING 

BEEN  SHOT. 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  517 

"Coal  Oil  Johnnie."  "  Among  the  remarkable  characters  which 
the  oil  excitement  brought  into  prominence  was  'Coal  Oil  Johnnie,' 
as  he  was  nicknamed ;  the  adopted  son  of  a  poor  widow  in  Ve- 
nango  County,  Pennsylvania,  upon  whose  farm  the  valuable  grease 
was  found  by  the  thousands  of  barrels;  and  unfortunately  she  died 
without  being  able  to  finish  her  peculiar  son's  education.  Being 
only  twenty  years  old  at  the  time  of  coming  into  his  inheritance,  he 
proceeded  to  sow  the  wind  most  luxuriously;  and  it  was  less  than 
five  years  before  he  was  putting  in  his  valuable  time  in  reaping  the 
whirlwind.  He  squandered  thousands  of  dollars  a  day,  hired  ballet 
dancers,  gave  suppers  costing  thousands  of  dollars  and  with  the 
most  unheard-of  courses;  raced  at  night  from  one  brothel  and 
gambling  den  to  another  as  fast  as  his  feet  could  carry  him.  He 
used  to  walk  the  streets  with  bunches  of  greenbacks  in  the  button- 
holes of  his  coat.  Some  were  blown  out  by  the  wind,  many  were 
snatched  from  his  person  as  he  walked  unconcernedly  along;  now 
and  then,  for  the  sake  of  variety,  he  plucked  others  from  his  pockets 
and  threw  them  off  into  space,  to  the  speechless  delight  of  boot- 
blacks, street  sweepers,  laborers,  policemen,  servant  girls,  and  all 
nations,  ages,  sexes,  and  colors.  Even  the  dogs  followed  him  with 
longing  eyes.  Thousands  of  attempts  were  made  to  reach  his 
pockets.  The  slightest  appeal  for  aid,  whether  deserving  or  not, 
was  responded  to  with  a  generosity  that  fairly  took  away  the  breath 
of  the  applicant;  sharpers  followed  at  his  heels  whenever  he  ap- 
peared on  the  streets,  and  thrust  their  presence  upon  him  at  every 
corner;  he  once  took  a  fancy  to  a  certain  minstrel  troupe  and  pur- 
chased for  them  an  outfit  which  fairly  blazed  with  costly  decorations 
and  ornaments. 

"  On  one  occasion  he  went  into  a  hotel  where  the  clerk  and  his 
aids  failed  to  recognize  his  importance  and  treated  him  coolly. 
Angered,  he  pulled  out  from  some  concealed  corner  of  his  rather 


5l8          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

disreputable-looking  person  a  roll  of  greenbacks  and  demanded  the 
price  of  the  house  including  servants  and  fixtures.  The  bewildered 
proprietor,  for  whom  the  frightened  clerk  at  the  desk  promptly  sent, 
thinking  he  was  dealing  with  a  maniac,  named  a  price ;  and 
'Johnnie  '  laid  down  the  price  on  the  desk,  and  promptly  ordered  the 
offending  clerk  and  a  porter  or  two  who  had  offended  him  to  *  dust 
and  be  lively  about  it/  He  then  took  possession  and  indulged  with 
a  few  of  his  chosen  comrades,  for  a  day  or  so,  in  some  of  the  wildest 
and  most  ridiculous  exploits  of  eating,  drinking,  sleeping,  and 
carousing  that  the  world  has  ever  heard  of,  and  then  presented  the 
house  to  a  clerk  who  struck  his  fancy. 

"  But  he  could  not  like  Tennyson's  brook  'go  on  forever';  for 
after  a  few  years  of  this  rapid  living,  Mr.  John  W.  Steele,  teamster, 
as  he  was  originally  known,  was  glad  to  accept  the  position  of  door- 
keeper to  the  very  minstrel  troupe  which  in  his  halcyon  days  he  had 
so  generously  fitted  out  with  a  golden  equipment." 

Storage  and  Transportation  of  Oil.  Ordinarily,  each  well  has  a 
tank  of  its  own  with  a  capacity  of  250  barrels  connected  with  the 
well  by  a  2-inch  pipe.  A  larger  pipe  connects  this  tank  with  one  of 
perhaps  10,000  barrels  capacity.  Pipe  lines  made  of  lengths  of 
wrought  iron  pipe,  capable  of  withstanding  a  pressure  of  2000  pounds 
per  square  inch,  screw  into  collars  and  form  a  continuous  line,  often 
reaching  hundreds  of  miles.  These  lines  connect  the  oil  fields  with 
the  cities  of  Cincinnati,  Cleveland,  Chicago,  Buffalo,  New  York, 
Jersey  City,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore.  Enormous  iron  tanks 
capable  of  holding  40,000  barrels  are  placed  at  intervals  along  such 
lines  and  the  oil  forced  by  powerful  pumps  through  forests,  over 
mountains,  across  valleys,  under  rivers,  from  station  to  station  across 
the  continent. 

Pumping  stations  are  from  25  to  30  miles  apart  and  consist  of  a 
boiler  house  of  brick,  with  large  tubular  boilers  of  80  or  100  horse 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  $19 

power,  and  great  pumps  that  can  force  25,000  barrels  a  day  through 
three  i6-inch  pipes  from  one  station  to  the  next. 

Petroleum  is  rich  in  paraffin,  which  has  a  tendency  to  adhere  to 
the  pipes  and  clog  them.  To  remove  this  a  clever  piece  of  mechan- 
ism called  a  go-devil  is  used.  It  is  hinged  with  a  ball  and  socket 
joint  that  allows  it  to  follow  any  of  the  bends  in  the  pipes,  and  fitted 
with  steel  knives  on  a  spindle  that  are  caused  to  turn  as  the  oil  passes 
through.  As  the  go-devil  is  forced  forward,  the  knives  revolve  and 
scrape  away  the  obstructions. 

For  the  European  trade  especially  constructed  oil  tank  steamers, 
costing  half  a  million  dollars  each  and  with  a  carrying  capacity  of 
2,700,000  gallons  of  oil,  are  used. 

The  striking  of  storage  tanks  by  lightning  is  not  uncommon,  for 
the  large  masses  of  metal  with  the  ascending  columns  of  light,  warm 
gas  form  excellent  conductors  of  electricity,  and  a  huge  oil  tank 
in  flames  presents  a  sight  never  to  be  forgotten.  In  the  case  of  a 
burning  tank,  cannon  kept  in  reserve  are  brought  out,  the  tank 
pierced  by  shot  and  the  oil  diverted  into  streams  near  by  and  run  off. 

The  United  Pipe  Line  Association  now  owns  more  than  3000 
miles  of  pipe,  iron  tanks  with  a  capacity  of  more  than  35,000,000 
barrels,  and  over  100  pumping  stations,  a  remarkable  contrast  with 
the  first  efforts  to  gather  the  oil  when  tanks,  barrels,  boxes,  bottles, 
cans,  pans,  and  even  old  hats  were  used,  and  the  liquid  wealth  carried 
by  hand  or  hauled  about  by  ox  teams.  Mules,  horses,  or  camels 
with  buckets  or  tubs  are  still  used  to  some  extent  for  the  transporta- 
tion of  oil  in  the  Caspian  district.  An  elaborate  system  of  book- 
keeping and  accounting  enables  the  transportation  companies  to 
receive  into  the  line  the  oil  of  hundreds  of  producers. 

If  a  producer  wishes  to  draw  off  100  or  200  barrels  into  one  of 
the  great  storage  tanks  in  the  valley  he  signals  the  gauger  in  the 
service  of  the  storage  company,  who  measures  the  height  of  the  oil 


520     •     THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

in  the  great  tank,  then  the  valves  are  thrown  open,  the  oil  from  the 
well  is  received  until  the  flow  ceases.  Another  measurement  of  the 
height  of  oil  in  the  receiving  tank  is  taken  and  the  difference  between 
the  two  levels  accurately  determined  to  within  a  minute  fraction  of  a 
barrel  and  placed  to  the  credit  of  the  producer,  who  receives  a  certifi- 
cate from  the  storage  company.  The  certificates  can  be  deposited 
in  a  bank  like  checks  or  negotiated  like  any  form  of  business  paper, 
can  be  used  as  collateral  security,  are  subject  to  transfer  by  indorse- 
ment, and  form  an  important  factor  in  banking,  commerce,  and  oil 
trade  circles. 

Our  debt  to  petroleum  is  greater  than  appears  at  first  thought, 
for  kerosene  is  the  light  depended  upon  in  country  homes  and  small 
villages  where  gas  plants  and  electric  lights  are  not  available.  The 
difference  between  the  light  furnished  by  tallow  candles  or  smoky, 
ill-smelling  whale  oil  lamps  and  the  light  of  a  "  Rochester  burner," 
using  kerosene  oil,  needs  only  to  be  seen  to  be  fully  appreciated. 
Good  artificial  light  not  only  saves  the  sight  and  prolongs  the 
hours  for  work  or  amusement,  but  it  has  also  prevented  suffer- 
ing and  loss  of  life,  for  the  petroleum  industry  practically  put  out  of 
business  the  whale  fishery  with  its  attendant  train  of  privations, 
wrecks,  and  losses  of  life.  The  whales  had  been  so  diminished  in 
number  that  whalers  were  compelled  to  make  long  voyages  to  the 
Arctic,  where  frequently  frozen  in  the  ice  they  remained  through  the 
long  dreary  Arctic  winter,  their  crew  suffering  untold  privations  from 
the  lack  of  suitable  food,  then  scurvy  with  its  awful  ravages 
appeared,  boats  were  often  overturned  by  angry  whales,  and  vessels 
were  caught  in  ice  floes.  Such  were  a  few  of  the  horrors  and  a  part 
of  the  price  that  was  paid  for  the  whale  oil  lamp.  The  by-products 
of  petroleum  are  so  numerous  that  a  single  volume  could  hardly  do 
them  complete  justice;  but  vaseline,  paraffin,  asphaltum,  lubricating 
oils,  and  gasoline  are  the  best  known. 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  $21 

The  Wells  light  is  a  very  simple  apparatus  for  using  the  vapor 
of  kerosene,  and  is  remarkably  efficient.  It  consists  of  a  steel  tank 
of  a  size  that  can  be  easily  handled  and  the  burner  connected  with 
the  tank  by  an  iron  tube.  A  valve  in  the  connecting  tube  is  closed 
and  the  tank  pumped  about  two  thirds  full  of  kerosene.  This  com- 
presses the  air  within  the  tank  and  gives  a  pressure  of  25  pounds  or 
more.  The  burner  is  then  heated  and  the  valve  in  the  connecting 
tube  opened.  The  pressure  within  forces  a  fine  stream  of  kerosene 
through  a  series  of  tubes  arranged  in  spiral  form  and  heated  so  hot 
that  by  the  time  it  reaches  -the  end  of  the  spiral,  the  kerosene  is  not 
only  vaporized,  but  made  into  a  gas,  when  it  ignites  and  burns  under 
high  pressure,  forming  a  long,  solid  flame  which  gives  out  great  light 
and  heat.  An  800  candle  power  light  can  be  obtained  by  the  use  of 
half  a  gallon  of  kerosene  per  hour,  and  if  the  kerosene  be  increased 
to  i  y2  gallons  per  hour,  4000  candle  power  can  be  developed.  The 
whole  apparatus  is  easily  moved  about  and  is  well  adapted  for  many 
kinds  of  mining,  excavating,  and  factory  illumination,  as  the  size  of 
the  flame  can  be  varied  at  will.  It  possesses  such  great  heating 
power  that  by  its  aid  locomotive  tires  can  be  set  without  removing 
the  trucks  from  the  engine  frame.  The  lamp  has  made  possible  the 
working  of  forces  of  men  in  the  open  air  where  other  forms  of  light 
are  not  suitable  or  available. 

The  Standard  Oil  Company.  A  few  words  concerning  the  oldest 
and  strongest  combination  of  capital  and  brains  that  the  American 
continent  has  seen  outside  of  railroad  operations  may  not  be  out  of 
place.  The  history  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company  is  so  interwoven 
with  that  of  the  petroleum  industry  that  one  cannot  be  followed 
without  taking  some  notice  of  the  other.  Mr.  Carnegie  says,  "  The 
only  people  who  have  reason  to  fear  trusts  are  those  who  trust 
them."  The  late  Lord  Chief  Justice  Russell  of  England  said  that  in 
seven  years  the  losses  to  the  public  through  failures  of  trusts  had 


522  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

been  "no  less  a  sum  than  £28,159,482  ($136,855,082),  made  up  of 
losses  of  creditors  dealing  with  such  companies,  £7,696,848  ($37,- 
406,681),  and  of  loss  to  the  wretched  contributors  or  shareholders 
£20,462,634  ($99,448,401),  and  when  we  recollect  that  these  are  the 
figures  relating  only  to  companies  wound  up  compulsorily  and  that 
they  exclude  cases  of  reduced  capital  and  losses  in  relation  to  com- 
panies whose  present  value  represents  a  very  few  shillings  or  pence  in 
the  pound  of  their  par  value,  you  will  see  that  the  loss  to  the  public 
is  enormous." 

But  the  Standard  Oil  Company  has  been  managed  with  such  con- 
spicuous ability  that  it  has  avoided  all  the  shoals  and  rocks  upon 
which  others  have  foundered  and  is  the  accepted  standard  from 
which  arguments  in  support  of  the  trust  idea  are  usually  drawn.  It 
has  been  attacked  often  and  furiously  by  the  press  and  the  pulpit, 
blackmailed  by  state  legislators  and  legal  functionaries,  and  so  much 
has  been  said  and  written  both  in  abuse  and  praise  of  it  that  it  is 
small  wonder  if  the  average  citizen  looks  upon  it  with  distrust  or  even 
fear.  But  persons  whose  minds  are  trained  in  economic  thought  and 
who  hold  that  man  is  not  totally  depraved  find  it  hard  to  believe 
that  such  a  matchless  organization  can  be  founded  solely  upon  a 
basis  of  bribery  and  corruption. 

Mr.  Rockefeller  was  summoned  before  a  congressional  commis- 
sion appointed  to  investigate  the  trust  problem,  and  given  a  series  of 
questions  to  which  he  replied  in  writing.  The  following  is  his  answer 
to  the  question  as  to  what  induced  the  first  combination  of  firms  in 
the  oil  business. 

Testimony  of  John  D.  Rockefeller.  "The  desire  to  unite  our 
skill  and  capital  in  order  to  carry  on  a  business  of  some  magnitude 
and  importance  in  place  of  the  small  business  that  each  separately 
had  theretofore  carried  on. 

"As  the  business  grew  and  markets  were  obtained  at  home  and 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  523 

abroad,  more  persons  and  capital  were  added  to  the  business  and 
new  corporate  agencies  were  obtained  or  organized,  the  object  being 
always  the  same  —  to  extend  our  business  by  furnishing  the  best  and 
cheapest  product. 

"  I  ascribe  the  success  of  the  Standard  to  its  consistent  policy  to 
make  the  volume  of  its  business  large  through  the  merits  and 
cheapness  of  its  products.  It  has  spared  no  expense  in  finding,  se- 
curing, and  utilizing  the  best  and  cheapest  methods  of  manufacture. 
It  has  sought  for  the  best  superintendents  and  workmen,  and  paid 
the  best  wages.  It  has  not  hesitated  to  sacrifice  old  machinery  and 
old  plants  for  new  and  better  ones.  It  has  placed  its  manufactories 
at  the  points  where  they  could  supply  markets  at  the  least  expense. 
It  has  not  only  sought  markets  for  its  principal  products,  but  for  all 
possible  by-products,  sparing  no  expense  in  introducing  them  to  the 
public.  It  has  not  hesitated  to  invest  millions  of  dollars  in  methods 
for  cheapening  the  gathering  and  distribution  of  oils,  by  pipe  lines, 
special  cars,  tank  steamers,  and  tank  wagons.  It  has  erected  tank 
stations  at  every  important  railroad  station  to  cheapen  the  storage 
and  delivery  of  its  products.  It  has  spared  no  expense  in  forcing  its 
products  into  the  markets  of  the  world,  among  people  civilized  and 
uncivilized.  It  has  had  faith  in  American  oil,  and  has  brought  to- 
gether millions  of  money  for  the  purpose  of  making  it  what  it  was, 
and  holding  its  markets  against  the  competition  of  Russia  and  all  the 
many  countries  which  are  producers  of  oil  and  competitors  against 
American  oil." 

Advantages  of  Combining.  "  Much  that  one  man  cannot  do 
alone  two  can  do  together,  and  once  admit  the  fact  that  co-operation, 
or,  what  is  the  same  thing,  combination,  is  necessary  on  a  small 
scale,  the  limit  depends  solely  upon  the  necessities  of  business.  Two 
persons  in  partnership  may  be  a  sufficiently  large  combination  for  a 
small  business,  but  if  the  business  grows  or  can  be  made  to  grow, 


524  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

more  persons  and  more  capital  must  be  taken  in.  The  business  may 
grow  so  large  that  a  partnership  ceases  to  be  a  proper  instrumen- 
tality for  its  purposes,  and  then  a  corporation  becomes  a  necessity. 
In  most  countries,  as  in  England,  this  form  of  industrial  ^combina- 
tion is  sufficient  for  a  business  co-extensive  with  the  parent  country, 
but  it  is  not  so  in  this  country.  Our  Federal  form  of  government, 
making  every  corporation  created  by  a  state  foreign  to  every  other 
state,  renders  it  necessary  for  persons  doing  business  through  corporate 
agency  to  organize  corporations  in  some  or  many  of  the  different 
states  in  which  their  business  is  located.  Instead  of  doing  business 
through  the  agency  of  one  corporation,  they  must  do  business  through 
the  agencies  of  several  corporations.  If  the  business  is  extended  to 
foreign  countries  —  and  Americans  are  not  to-day  satisfied  with  home 
markets  alone  —  it  will  be  found  helpful  and  possibly  necessary  to 
organize  corporations  in  such  countries,  for  Europeans  are  prejudiced 
against  foreign  corporations,  as  are  the  people  of  many  of  our  states. 
These  different  corporations  thus  become  co-operating  agencies  in 
the  same  business,  and  are  held  together  by  common  ownership  of 
their  stock. 

"It  is  too  late  to  argue  about  advantages  of  industrial  combina- 
tions. They  are  a  necessity.  And  if  Americans  are  to  have  the 
privilege  of  extending  their  business  in  all  the  States  of  the  Union 
and  into  foreign  countries  as  well,  they  are  a  necessity  on  a  large 
scale  and  require  the  agency  of  more  than  one  corporation.  Their 
chief  advantages  are :  — 

"I.      Command  of  necessary  capital. 

"2.      Extension  of  limits  of  business. 

"3.      Increase  of  number  of  persons  interested  in  the  business. 

"4.      Economy  in  business. 

"5.  Improvements  and  economies  which  are  derived  from 
knowledge  of  many  interested  persons  of  wide  experience. 


MINERAL    INDUSTRIES.  525 

11  6.  Power  to  give  the  public  improved  products  at  less  prices 
and  still  make  profit  for  stockholders. 

"  7.      Permanent  work  and  good  wages  for  laborers. 

"  I  speak  from  my  experience  in  the  business,  with  which  I  have 
been  intimately  connected  for  about  forty  years." 

Pipe  Lines.  "  We  soon  discovered  as  the  business  grew  that  the 
primary  method  of  transporting  oil  in  barrels  could  not  last.  The 
package  often  costs  more  than  the  contents,  and  the  forests  of  the 
country  were  not  sufficient  to  supply  the  material  for  an  extended 
length  of  time.  Hence  we  devoted  attention  to  other  methods  of 
transportation,  adopted  the  pipe  line  system  and  found  capital  for 
pipe  line  construction  equal  to  the  necessities  of  the  business.  To 
operate  pipe  lines  required  franchises  from  states  in  which  they  were 
located,  and  consequently  corporations  in  those  states,  just  as  rail- 
roads running  through  different  states  are  forced  to  operate  under 
separate  charters.  To  perfect  the  pipe  line  system  of  transportation 
required  in  the  neighborhood  of  $50,000,000  of  capital.  This  could 
not  be  obtained  or  maintained  without  industrial  combination. 

"The  entire  oil  business  is  dependent  upon  this  pipe  line  system. 
Without  it  every  well  would  be  shut  down,  every  foreign  market 
would  be  closed  to  us.  The  pipe  line  system  required  other  improve- 
ments, such  as  tank  cars  upon  railways,  and  finally  the  tank  steamer. 
Capital  had  to  be  furnished  for  them,  and  corporations  created  to 
own  and  operate  them.  Every  step  taken  was  necessary  in  the  busi- 
ness if  it  was  to  be  properly  developed. 

"  The  dangers  are  that  the  power  conferred  by  combinations  may 
be  abused,  that  combinations  may  be  formed  for  speculation  in 
stocks  rather  than  for  conducting  business,  and  that  for  this  purpose 
prices  may  be  temporarily  raised  instead  of  being  lowered. 

"These  abuses  are  possible  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  in  all  com- 
binations, large  or  small,  but  this  fact  is  no  more  of  an  argument 


526 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


against  combinations  than  the  fact  that  steam  may  explode  is  an  ar- 
gument against  steam.  Steam  is  necessary  and  can  be  made  com- 
paratively safe.  Combination  is  necessary,  and  its  abuses  can  be 
minimized  ;  otherwise  our  legislators  must  acknowledge  their  incapac- 
ity to  deal  with  the  most  important  instrument  of  industry. 

"  Hitherto  most  legislative  attempts  have  been  an  effort  not  to 
control,  but  to  destroy,  hence  their  futility." 


CRIPPLE  CREEK. 


MEANS  OF  COMMUNICATION. 

Electric  Telegraph  —  Heliograph — Contributions  of  Morse — First  Telegraph  Line  in 

America Wireless   Telegraphy — Submarine   Cables  —  Uses   of   Cables  —  Telephone  — 

Wireless  Telephony  —  Phonograph  —  Telautograph  —  Moving  Picture  Machines  —  Postal 
Service  —  Canadian  System  —  Postal  Union  — Free  Delivery— Pneumatic  Tube  Postal 
Service  — Trans-continental  Mails  — Pony  Express  — Two-cent  Rate  to  the  Philippines. 


ELECTRIC   TELEGRAPH. 

OR  countless  centuries  man  has  striven  to  quicken 
his  means  of    communication    with   his    fellow- 
and   from   time   immemorial   has   employed   for 
that  purpose  sight  and  sound,  but  the 
use  of  electricity  is  the  gift  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.      The  fleet-footed  mes- 
sengers  and   the   couriers   in    relays   so 

often  mentioned  in  Greek  history,   the 

HENRY'S  TELEGRAPH.  r  i  •   i     c*-     iir  i*.        c-  j 

fiery  cross  which  Sir  Walter  Scott  de- 
scribes in  his  "  Lady  of  the  Lake,"  war  drums,  trumpets,  and  alarm 
bells,  all  were  used.  Light  is  immensely  superior  to  sound  in  speed, 
and  signal  beacons  burning  on  mountain  tops  were  used  so  early  that 
tradition  says  that  when  ancient  Troy  fell,  in  the  eleventh  century 
B.  C.,  Agamemnon  conveyed  the  news  to  Clytemnestra,  his  wife,  by 
a  chain  of  signal  beacons  stretching  from  Mount  Ida  to  the  palace  of 
the  queen. 

The  semaphore,  the  first  really  efficient  telegraph,  was  invented 
by  Claude  Chappe  and  adopted  by  the  French  government  in  I/94- 
As  adopted,  it  consisted  of  a  vertical  post  with  a  movable  arm  to 
which  were  attached  two  smaller  pivoted  arms.  By  different  move- 
ments of  these  arms  98  distinct  signals  could  be  made.  The  system 


528          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

was  soon  in  general  use  throughout  Europe  and  nearly  every  nation 
had  its  semaphores  placed  on  towers  4  or  5  miles  apart  forming  long 
lines.  Nicholas  I.  of  Russia  constructed  one  at  an  expense  of  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  with  220  stations,  running  from  the  Austrian  frontier 
to  St.  Petersburg. 

The  heliograph  is  a  system  of  conveying  signals  by  the  use  of 
flashes  of  sunlight  from  mirrors.  Its  use  in  South  Africa  during  the 
heroic  siege  of  Ladysmith  has  rendered  the  term  familiar.  Messages 
can  be  sent  in  this  way  for  a  surprisingly  long  distance.  The  French 
have  employed  it  between  the  islands  of  Mauritius  and  Reunion  in 
the  Indian  Ocean,  the  stations  being  on  mountain  tops  133  miles 
apart.  The  United  States  Signal  Corps  on  the  top  of  Mount  Un- 
compahgre,  Colorado,  has  communicated  with  Mount  Ellen  in  Utah, 
183  miles  away.  The  British  navy  uses  calcium  and  electric  lights 
for  similar  purposes,  and  at  the  siege  of  Paris  calcium  lights  aided  by 
lenses  and  reflectors  were  frequently  employed  to  send  messages 
from  one  station  to  another  20  miles  or  more  away.  The  army  and 
navy  of  all  civilized  nations  are  now  able  to  telegraph  by  means  of 
flash  lights  and  signal  flags. 

As  soon  as  it  became  known  that  electricity  could  be  transmitted 
for  a  considerable  distance  through  a  conductor,  various  attempts 
were  made  to  utilize  it  for  telegraphic  purposes.  What  is  generally 
accepted  as  the  earliest  suggestion  of  this  kind  appeared  in  Scotf  s 
Magazine,  February  1st,  1753,  in  which  the  writer  proposes  to  em- 
ploy as  many  wires  as  the  letters  of  the  alphabet,  having  at  the  end 
of  each  wire  a  letter  and  a  suspended  pith  ball.  The  ball  would 
move  when  a  current  of  electricity  was  sent  through  the  wire  and 
signal  the  letter  to  be  employed,  and  words  were  to  be  spelled  out  in 
this  way.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  author  of  the  first  practical 
suggestion  of  an  electrical  telegraph  has  never  been  identified. 

Claims  of  Morse.      The  name  of  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse  seems  to 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  529 

many  people  to  stand  for  everything  connected  with  the  modern 
telegraph.  Great  credit  is  due  Morse  for  the  energy,  the  will 
power,  and  remarkable  perseverance  he  displayed  in  securing  rec- 
ognition and  adoption  for  the  telegraph,  but  he  had  very  little  part 
in  the  construction  of  what  constitutes  the  electric  telegraph  of 
to-day.  The  first  electric  telegraph  ever  constructed  was  that  of 
Le  Sage  at  Geneva,  Switzerland,  in  1774.  He  used  24  wires,  each 
named  after  a  letter  of  the  alphabet  and  fitted  with  an  electroscope 
which  moved  when  an  electric  impulse  was  sent  through  the  wire. 
In  1796  Salva  in  Spain  worked  by  static  electricity  a  line  26  miles 
long.  Soemering  of  Munich  operated  a  telegraph  in  1807,  using 
Volta's  cells,  and  published  accounts  of  it  in  scientific  journals  and 
exhibited  it  to  learned  societies.  In  England  Sir  Francis  Ronalds 
had  in  1816  a  line  8  miles  long,  the  wire  of  which  was  suspended  on 
silken  strings.  When  he  tried  to  interest  the  British  government  he 
received  the  reply,  "Telegraphs  of  any  kind  are  now  wholly  unneces- 
sary and  no  other  than  the  one  now  in  use  will  be  adopted."  All 
these  were  imperfect  and  expensive  machines,  and  it  was  not  until 
after  the  discoveries  of  four  great  men  that  the  modern  telegraph  be- 
came possible. 

Essential  Parts  of  the  Telegraph.  In  the  electric  telegraph  of 
to-day  there  are  four  things  necessary:  the  battery,  the  conducting 
wire,  the  electro-magnet,  and  the  instruments  for  sending  and  re- 
ceiving messages.  The  battery  was  made  possible  by  the  discoveries 
of  Galvani  and  Volta,  which  have  been  described,  and  made  practi- 
cable by  the  Daniell  cell.  It  had  been  known  for  some  time  that 
currents  of  electricity  could  be  sent  through  considerable  lengths  of 
wire,  and  Weber  discovered  in  1823  that  he  could  pass  an  electric 
current  through  a  copper  wire  carried  over  the  houses  and  steeples 
of  Gottingen  without  insulating  it.  For  the  electro-magnet,  the 
work  of  four  men  was  required:  Oersted  (Danish),  who  in  1819 


530  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

first  detected  the  effect  of  the  electric  current  on  a  magnetic  needle ; 
Arago  (French),  who  in  1820  discovered  that  the  current  could  gen- 
erate magnetism  ;  Sturgeon  (English),  who  produced  the  first  electro- 
magnet ;  and  Henry  (American),  who  was  the  first  to  operate  an 
electro-magnet  at  a  distance.  Barlow,  an  eminent  English  scientist, 
had  tried  in  1824  to  apply  Sturgeon's  magnet  to  the  telegraph  but 
failed  because,  as  he  says,  "  I  found  such  a  sensible  diminution  with 
only  200  feet  of  wire  as  at  once  convincd  me  of  the  impracticability 
of  the  scheme,"  and  the  only  practical  application  made  of  the  dis- 
covery of  Oersted  was  the  use  of  a  magnetic  needle  deflected  at 
will  to  the  right  or  the  left  by  an  electric  current.  By  the  use  of  a 
code  signals  could  be  sent. 

Prominent  Experimentalists.  Gauss  and  Weber  in  1833  set  up 
such  a  telegraph  at  Gottingen.  Cooke,  who  afterward  became  fa- 
mous for  his  connection  with  the  needle  telegraph,  applied  in  1837 
to  Faraday  for  information  that  would  help  him  to  work  an  electro- 
magnet at  a  distance.  Faraday  referred  him  to  Wheatstone,  who 
pronounced  his  plan  impracticable.  In  1837  Cooke  and  Wheatstone 
took  out  an  English  patent  for  an  electric  telegraph  by  which  signals 
were  given  by  electric  needles.  It  is  difficult  in  these  days  of  instan- 
taneous communication  to  realize  how  little  nations  knew  of  each 
other  three  fourths  of  a  century  ago,  for  six  years  before  Wheatstone 
had  pronounced  the  electro-magnet  impracticable,  Professor  Joseph 
Henry  of  the  Albany  Academy  strung  more  than  a  mile  of  wire 
about  the  walls  of  that  building  and  set  up  an  electro-magnetic  tele- 
graph which  he  describes  as  follows:  "I  arranged,  around  one  of 
the  upper  rooms  in  the  Albany  Academy,  a  wire  of  more  than  a  mile 
in  length,  through  which  I  was  enabled  to  make  signals  by  sounding 
a  bell.  The  mechanical  arrangement  for  effecting  this  object  was 
simply  a  steel  bar,  permanently  magnetized,  of  about  ten  inches  in 
length,  supported  on  a  pivot,  and  placed  with  its  north  end  between 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  531 

the  two  arms  of  a  horseshoe  magnet.  When  the  latter  was  excited 
by  the  current,  the  end  of  the  bar,  thus  placed,  was  attracted  by  one 
arm  of  the  horseshoe  and  repelled  by  the  other,  and  was  thus  caused 
to  move  in  a  horizontal  plane,  and  its  farther  extremity  to  strike  a 
bell  suitably  adjusted."  This  was  the  first  sounding  telegraph  in 
the  world. 

"In  1835  Professor  Henry,  who  had  been  called  to  Princeton 
College,  constructed  a  line  and  worked  it  as  it  is  to-day  worked, 
with  a  relay  and  local  circuit,  so  that  at  that  period  all  the  problems 
had  been  worked  out.  But,  like  the  speaking  telephone  in  its  early 
inception,  no  one  appreciated  its  real  importance.  Henry  himself 
did  not  think  it  worth  while  to  take  out  a  patent."* 

Wheatstone  and  Cooke  were  knighted  by  Queen  Victoria  for  the 
invention  of  an  electric  telegraph  that  has  been  superseded  by  that 
outlined  years  before  by  Henry.  Henry's  Princeton  line  in  the  Phil- 
osophic Hall  used  one  wire,  one  end  of  which  terminated  in  the  well 
at  his  home  and  the  other  in  the  earth  at  his  laboratory  in  the  college 
buildings.  It  was  not  until  1837  that  Steinheil  at  Munich  worked 
his  electric  telegraph  by  a  single  wire,  using  the  earth  as  part  of  a 
circuit.  We  will  allow  Professor  Henry  to  speak  for  himself.  "At 
the  time  of  making  my  original  experiments  in  electro-magnetism  in 
Albany  I  was  urged  by  a  friend  to  take  out  a  patent  both  for  its  ap- 
plication to  machinery  and  to  the  telegraph;  but  this  I  declined 
on  the  ground  that  I  did  not  then  consider  it  compatible  with  the 
dignity  of  science  to  confine  the  benefits  which  might  be  derived  from 
it  to  the  exclusive  use  of  any  individual,  "f 

Contributions  of  Morse.  In  1832  Morse  began  work  on  the  elec- 
tric telegraph,  and  in  1837  exhibited  a  line  at  the  University  of  the 
City  of  New  York  in  Washington  square,  by  which  signals  were  sent 


*Prof.  Elisha  Gray. 

t  "  Joseph  Henry  and  the  Magnetic  Telegraph."     Edward  N.  Dickerson. 


532  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

by  electricity.  He  was  aided  in  this  work  by  Professor  John  W. 
Draper.  Morse  had  interested  Judge  Stephen  Vail  of  Speedwell, 
New  Jersey,  who  furnished  the  money  for  the  enterprise  and  whose 
son,  Alfred  Vail,  assisted  Morse  in  his  work,  and  for  whom  a  large 
share  of  the  credit  has  been  claimed.  The  code  called  by  Morse's 
name  is  said  to  have  been  invented  by  young  Vail  from  suggestions 
given  him  by  printers  as  to  the  order  in  which  the  letters  of  the  alpha- 
bet were  most  used.  In  1843  Congress  made  an  appropriation  of 
$30,000  to  build  an  experimental  line  for  Morse  between  Baltimore 
and  Washington,  and  over  this  line  was  sent  the  famous  message, 
"  What  hath  God  wrought."* 

The  first  telegraphic  line  in  America  was  thrown  open  to  the 
public  April  I,  1844.  The  tariff  was  one  cent  for  four  words. 
"  During  the  first  four  days  the  receipts  amounted  to  one  cent.  This 
was  obtained  from  an  office  seeker,  who  said  that  he  had  nothing 
else  than  a  twenty-dollar  bill  and  one  cent,  and,  with  the  modesty  of 
his  class,  wanted  to  see  the  operation  free.  This  was  refused  because 
against  orders.  He  was  then  told  that  he  could  have  a  cent's  worth 
of  telegraphy,  to  which  he  agreed.  He  was  gratified  in  the  following 
manner:  Washington  asked  Baltimore,  '4  ?  '  which  meant  in  the  list 
of  signals,  '  What  time  is  it  ?  '  Baltimore  replied,  '-I,'  which  meant, 
1  one  o'clock.'  This  was  one  character  each  way,  which,  according 
to  the  tariff,  would  amount  to  half  a  cent.  The  man  paid  his  one 
cent,  declined  the  change,  and  went  his  way.  This  was  the  revenue 
for  four  days.  On  the  fifth  12^  cents  were  received.  The  sixth 
was  the  Sabbath.  On  the  seventh  the  revenue  ran  up  to  60  cents; 
on  the  eighth,  $1.32.  On  the  ninth  they  were  1.04."  f.  This  is  an 


*The  code  known  as  the  Morse  code  is  as  follows  .  A.  — B —  ...C..  .D  — .. 

E  .  F  .  —  .  G .  H  .  .  .  .  I  .  .  J  —  .  —  .  K  —  .  —  I M N  —  .  O  .  .P 

Q  .  .  —  .  R  .  .  .  S  .  .  .  T  —  U  .  .  —  V...  —  W. X  .  —  -  .  .  Y  .  .  ..Z...  .  &  .  ... 

i  . .2..— ..3...  —  .4....—  5—          -6 7  — 

t  James  D.  Reid,  "  The  Telegraph  in  America." 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION. 


533 


interesting  commentary  on  the  progress  of  the  time,  for  numerous 
wires  and  dozens  of  offices  are  now  required  to  conduct  the  tele- 
graphic business  between  these  two  cities. 


A  BCD 

CLOSED  CIRCUIT  SYSTEM  WITH  "WAY"  STATIONS  AND  "RELAYS." 

The  working  of  a  Morse  telegraph  is  simple  when  understood. 
Suppose  a  properly  insulated  wire  to  connect  Ottawa  with  Washing- 
ton, each  end  being  connected  with  the  earth  and  forming  a  circuit 
as  shown  in  the  figure  herewith.  When 
the  keys  at  both  ends  are  closed  the  bat- 
teries are  in  action  and  the  electro- 
magnets attract  the  armatures  or  keepers. 
If  either  key  is  opened  the  current  stops, 
the  electro-magnets  no  longer  attract 
the  armatures,  which  are  drawn  away 
by  a  spring,  giving  forth  a  click  that  con- 
veys an  intelligible  sound  to  the  operator. 

Relays  and  repeaters  are  used  because 
it  is  difficult  to  send  an  electric  current 
through  so  long  a  line,  400  miles  for  iron 
wire  being  about  the  limit.  Suppose  a 
relay  station  established  at  Toronto ;  the 
electric  impulse  arrive's  there  like  a  courier,  out  of  breath  and  ex- 
hausted, but  has  sufficient  strength  to  operate  a  battery  there,  which 


MORSE'S   FIRST  TELEGRAPH 
INSTRUMENT. 


534         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

sounds  out  the  message  distinctly  and  hurries  forward  the  signal  to 
another  relay  station  that  may  be  located  at  Buffalo,  that  in  turn 
forwards  it  to  New  York  or  Philadelphia,  thence  on  its  way  to  Wash- 
ington. It  is  the  weak  current's  ability  to  close  the  circuit  of  a 
strong  battery  and  wake  up  and  set  in  motion  a  fresh  courier  that 
gives  the  name  "  relay"  to  the  system. 

The  first  Morse  telegraphs  employed  a  register  which  made  a 
series  of  dots  and  dashes  on  paper  from  which  the  message  was  read, 
but  gradually  the  operators  came  to  be  able  to  read  by  sound,  and 
that  is  the  method  now  most  used  the  world  over. 

Other  and  Later  Systems.  The  needle  system  of  Cooke  and 
Wheatstone,  used  in  England  before  Morse  had  prevailed  upon  Con- 
gress to  build  his  experimental  line,  was  soon  followed  by  the  chem- 
ical telegraph  of  Bain,  the  printing  telegraph  of  House,  and  later 
that  of  Hughes.  But  they  are  all  too  complicated  to  be  described 
within  the  space  to  which  this  article  is  limited,  and  although  print- 
ing and  automatic  systems  are  used  in  America  to  some  extent  the 
greater  part  of  the  work  is  done  by  sound  writing  and  copied  either 
by  hand  or  typewritten. 

Morse  counted  himself  happy  to  be* able  to  get  one  message  over 
the  line  at  a  time,  but  soon  half  a  dozen  inventors  were  trying  to  in- 
crease the  capacity  of  the  line  for  work,  although  it  was  not  until 
1872  that' Joseph  B.  Stearns  of  Boston  invented  a  condenser  which 
made  possible  duplex  telegraphy.  Now  it  is  possible  to  use  the  same 
wire  at  the  same  time  for  carrying  many  messages  in  both  directions, 
without  their  interfering  with  each  other  in  the  least.  The  apparatus 
by  which  this  is  effected  represents  the  combined  effort  of  the  great- 
est minds  of  electrical  science.  The  time  required  to  transmit  an 
electrical  signal  over  an  ordinary  line  is  less  than  1-500000  of  a  sec- 
ond, and  the  human  mind  and  hand  cannot  approach  such  speed, 
hence  the  signals  do  not  interfere  with  each  other. 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  535 

Edison  developed  and  put  in  operation  about  1878  a  quadruplex 
system  by  which  four  messages  could  be  sent  over  the  same  wire  at 
the  same  time.  This,  of  course,  immensely  increased  the  capacity 
of  the  wire  to  do  business  and  is  said  to  have  added  $15,000,000  to 
the  value  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  alone.  Other 
methods  employ  something  like  a  typewriter  that  punches  holes  in  a 
paper  tape.  When  a  series  of  messages  have  been  thus  prepared  the 
tape  is  run  through  a  machine  having  electrical  connection  with  a 
telegraph  line,  and  metal  points  or  brushes  drop  into  the  holes  and 
transmit  an  electrical  impulse  that  at  another  office  signals  the  letters 
which  the  holes  in  the  tape  represent.  With  this  or  a  similar  system 
it  has  been  found  possible  to  transmit  more  than  1000  words  a  min- 
ute over  a  line. 

Printing  Telegraph.  Royal  C.  House  invented  in  1846  a  print- 
ing telegraph,  by  which  the  message  was  printed  on  a  slip  of  paper. 
This  has  been  perfected  and  developed  until  to-day  it  is  represented 
in  the  broker's  office  by  a  "ticker"  on  which  is  printed  automat- 
ically the  market  quotations  of  different  securities. 

The  Pollak-Virag  system  of  multiplex  telegraphy  calls  pho- 
tography to  its  aid.  To  put  the  message  in  sending  form,  a  pa- 
per tape  is  run  through  a  machine  which  is  perforated  in  two  lines, 
the  upper  line  for  the  dashes,  the  lower  line  for  the  dots  of  the 
Morse  code.  The  tape  when  prepared  is  run  rapidly  over  a  wheel 
electrically  connected  with  the  telegraph  line.  Pressing  upon  the 
tape  are  two  small  brushes,  one  for  the  dash  line  and  one  for  the  dot 
line.  The  first  is  connected  with  the  positive  pole  of  a  battery  and 
the  second  with  the  negative.  The  only  limits  to  the  number  of 
words  that  can  be  sent  are  the  speed  with  which  the  wheel  can  be 
turned  and  the  number  of  signals  that  can  be  sent  over  the  wire  with- 
out confusion,  but  the  speed  of  the  wheel  is  only  a  question  of 
power  and  gearing  and  the  number  of  signals  is  practically  unlimited, 


536    .  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

for  as  many  as  500,000  distinct  signals  can  be  sent  each  second.  At 
the  receiving  station  is  a  mirror  galvanometer  upon  which  the  light 
from  a  small  incandescent  lamp  falls.  The  mirror  turns  and  throws 
the  rays  in  one  direction  for  dots  and  in  the  other  for  dashes.  The 
rays,  brought  to  a  point  by  a  convex  lens  and  falling  on  a  rapidly 
moving  sensitized,  paper  ribbon,  are  there  photographed.  The  sensi- 
tized paper  can  be  developed  in  four  minutes  and  the  message  read  as 
though  it  were  a  cable  message.  In  a  test  at  Berlin  before  represen- 
tatives of  the  Hungarian,  French,  and  American  government  220 
words  were  transmitted  in  9  seconds,  and  122,000  words  per  minute 
have  been  transmitted  by  this  system  between  Chicago  and  Buffalo. 

Telegraphing  to  Moving  Trains.  As  we  have  seen  in  the  study 
of  the  dynamo,  at  the  instant  of  the  starting  or  stopping  of  an 
electric  current  a  secondary  impulse  is  set  up.  The  same  thing 
occurs  whenever  a  current  passes  through  a  telegraph  wire,  and  this 
impulse  is  communicated  to  objects  near  by  and  from  them  passes  to 
the  earth.  Edison  employed  the  metallic  roofs  of  cars  to  receive 
this  induced  current  from  the  wire.  A  battery  placed  in  a  moving 
car  has  within  its  circuit  an  intensifying  coil,  a  "  buzzer,"  and  a  tele- 
phone receiver.  As  the  induction  impulse  occurs  only  with  the 
making  and  breaking  of  a  telegraphic  current  it  cannot  be  used  for 
the  Morse  code,  so  the  impulses  are  gathered  into  a  "buzzer"  and 
read  by  a  telephone  instead  of  the  Morse  register.  This  had  several 
successful  trials  before  it  was  installed  for  a  time  on  the  Lehigh 
Valley  railroad,  but  as  there  was  not  much  demand  for  it  commer- 
cially it  was  withdrawn.  However,  it  is  practicable  and  awaits  only 
the  call  for  its  services. 

Wireless  telegraphy  is  now  an  accomplished  fact  and  many  able 
electricians  have  contributed  to  bring  it  about.  In  1864  Clerk  Max- 
well declared  that  electricity  and  light  differed  only  in  the  length  of 
the  waves  (those  of  light  being  the  longer)  having  the  same  velocity, 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  537 

186,400  miles  per  second.  Heinrich  Hertz,  a  German  scientist,  in 
1888  proved  the  truth  of  Maxwell's  theories  and  showed  that 
alternating  currents  of  high  frequency  in  an  open  circuit  could  be 
conveyed  away  from  the  circuit  as  electric  waves.  He  further  dem- 
onstrated that  waves  of  electricity  can  be  reflected  and  refracted 
like  waves  of  light  and  that  at  a  certain  intensity  air  became  a  good 
conductor. 

The  coherer  made  the  practical  application  of  "Hertzian  waves" 
possible.  Varley  in  1866  noticed  that  the  dust  of  black  lead  sprinkled 
between  the  poles  of  a  battery  intercepted  the  current,  but  when  the 
current  was  made  powerful  enough,  the  black  lead  dust  became  com- 
pact and  formed  an  excellent  conductor.  Onesti  in  1885  observed 
the  same  phenomenon  in  powdered  copper,  and  in  1891  Branley  of 
Paris  brought  out  a  coherer  in  which  this  principle  was  applied  and 
he  also  discovered  that  the  conductivity  of  the  particles  could  be 
destroyed  by  shaking  or  tapping  them.  Dr.  Lodge  of  London 
added  to  the  knowledge  in  1894,  and  in  1899  Marconi,  an  Italian 
residing  in  England,  successfully  established  communication  across  the 
English  Channel,  32  miles,  since  which  time  the  range  of  the  system 
has  been  extended  to  about  100  miles. 

The  improved  coherer  is  a  glass  tube  about  I  j£  inches  long  and 
i- 12  of  an  inch  internal  diameter.  Within  this  are  two  silver  elec- 
trodes which  fit  the  tube  and  approach  within  a  minute  fraction  of  an 
inch  of  each  other.  The  space  between  the  electrodes  is  filled  with 
fine  nickel  and  silver  filings,  the  merest  trace  of  mercury,  and  the  air 
within  the  space  exhausted  to  within  i-iooooo  part. 

>It  is  operated  as  follows :  A  powerful  battery  with  an  induction 
coil  sends  a  current  to  two  brass  spheres  about  three  inches  in  diam- 
eter nearly  touching  each  other.  A  spark  leaps  from  one  sphere  to 
the  other  and  sends  out  waves  which  travel  through  the  atmosphere 
and  act  upon  the  coherer  at  a  distance,  causing  the  fine  filings  be- 


538  THE   MARVELS    OF   MODERN   MECHANISM. 

tween  the  electrodes  to  become  compact  and  furnish  a  good  con- 
ductor of  electricity.  The  electrodes  are  part  of  a  local  battery,  the 
current  of  which  has  been  waiting  for  the  space  between  the  poles 
within  the  glass  tube  to  be  bridged  so  that  it  can  pass.  When  an 
electric  impulse  from  the  brass  balls  passing  through  the  air  acts  upon 
the  dust  between  the  poles  of  the  coherer  and  converts  it  into  a  good 
conductor,  a  circuit  is  established  in  the  local  battery,  which,  by  con- 
necting with  a  relay,  can  be  made  to  sound  a  signal  like  an  ordinary 
telegraph  receiver. 

In  the  Marconi  coherer  a  little  hammer  is  made  to  fall  with  a 
slight  tap  upon  the  glass  tube  and  at  the  jar  the  particles  of  dust  fall 
apart  ready  to  be  again  acted  upon  by  the  electric  impulse  from  afar. 
Such  an  impulse,  almost  too  feeble  to  be  computed,  is  sufficient  to 
change  the  filings  between  the  poles  from  a  barrier  to  a  conductor  of 
electricity  that  will  furnish  passage  for  the  waiting  current  of  the 
local  battery.  In  actual  service  the  waves  are  caught  by  a  single 
wire  or  a  network  of  wires  insulated  and  raised  vertically  above  the 
ground  on  a  tall  mast,  the  greater  the  height  the  greater  the  distance 
from  which  signals  can  be  received.  The  waves,  when  caught,  cause 
electrical  vibrations  to  be  carried  down  the  mast  to  the  coherer. 
The  transmitters  and  receivers  can  be  so  delicately  adjusted  or  "at- 
tuned "  to  each  other  that  the  receiver  will  take  messages  only  from 
its  own  transmitter,  and  thus  absolute  privacy  can  be  secured.  The 
energy  of  a  Marconi  sending  apparatus  is  sufficient  to  produce  an  arc 
light  of  1000  candle  power,  and  sensitive  as  is  the  coherer  to  influ- 
ences almost  immeasurable,  it  cannot  compare  in  its  delicacy  with 
the  human  eye. 

Advantages  of  Marconi  System.  The  Marconi  system  of  wire- 
less telegraphy  can  never  become  a  successful  competitor  with  present 
commercial  methods  because  only  fifteen  words  a  minute  can  be 
transmitted  by  it.  But  it  has  great  possibilities  in  other  lines.  The 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  539 

ships  of  a  squadron  equipped  with  it  might  in  the  night  run  past 
threatening  batteries  and  communicate  with  each  other  without  dis- 
playing any  telltale  signals  that  would  draw  the  fire  of  the  enemy. 
Crowded  ocean  passenger  steamers  equipped  with  such  an  apparatus 
could  communicate  with  lighthouses  or  signal  stations  located  on 
dangerous  reefs  even  through  the  fog  and  the  darkness.  A  well 
equipped  Marconi  system  would  have  allowed  the  besieged  ministers 
at  Pekin  to  communicate  with  the  relief  force  at  Tien-Tsin,  and 
would  have  thus  relieved  much  of  the  anxiety  that  prevailed  during 
that  period  of  mystery  and  fear. 

Humanitarian  and  Utilitarian  Aspects  of  the  Telegraph.  If 
the  canals,  railroads,  and  steamship  lines  are  the  muscles  of  a  nation, 
the  telegraph  may  not  inaptly  be  styled  its  nervous  system.  It  has 
annihilated  distance  and  practically  enables  a  man  to  make  his  voice 
heard  at  the  uttermost  ends  of  the  earth.  It  alleviates  human  suffer- 
ing by  calling  the  physician  or  surgeon  to  the  bedside,  or  by  hurrying 
aid  to  an  accident  or  a  great  disaster  like  that  at  Galveston.  It 
makes  possible  far-reaching  commercial  transactions.  It  is  invalua- 
ble in  directing  the  operations  of  any  large  organization,  military  or 
otherwise.  It  deters  from  some  crime  by  the  knowledge  that  win- 
dows, doors,  and  safes  may  be  guarded  by  burglar  alarms,  and  it 
enables  the  forces  of  law  and  order  to  communicate  so  quickly  and 
freely  as  to  render  the  escape  of  a  criminal  almost  impossible.  A 
general  in  the  wilds  of  Africa  found  he  must  have  a  bridge  to  cross  a 
river  before  the  rainy  season  opened  and  the  stream  rose.  By  means 
of  the  electric  telegraph  he  communicated  with  the  leading  manu- 
facturers of  Europe  and  America  and  the  bridge  was  ordered,  con- 
structed, and  placed  on  board  a  vessel  in  New  York  harbor  ready  for 
shipment  in  less  time  than  would  have  been  required  to  send  and 
receive  an  answer  by  mail. 

It  is  impossible  for  society  to  estimate  the  value  of  the  telegraph's 


540 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


contributions  to  human  happiness  and  comfort  or  the  saving  effected 
in  time  and  labor.  The  close  of  the  century  saw  (exclusive  of  the 
ocean  cables)  more  than  100,000  telegraph  offices,  3,000,000  miles  of 
telegraph  wire,  and  365,000,000  messages  sent  annually. 

SUBMARINE    CABLES. 

Beneath  the  bosom  of  the  North  Atlantic  lie  fourteen  submarine 
cables  that  throb  with  the  messages  of  the  Old  World  and  the  New. 


CABLE  MAP  OF  THE  WORLD. 

Three  cables  underlie  the  South  Atlantic,  connecting  South  America 
with  Europe  and  Africa,  and  numerous  others  connect  Great  Britain 
with  her  Indian,  African,  and  Australasian  possessions.  It  lacks  but 
a  solitary  cable  across  the  Pacific  to  girdle  the  globe,  and  the  demand 
for  it  is  so  great  that  it  will  soon  be  forthcoming,  either  as  the  "All 
British  Cable  "  or  an  American  cable  connecting  Hawaii,  Guam,  and 
the  Philippines. 


MEANS   OF   COMMUNICATION.  541 

• 
Although  no  longer  ago  than  1866  the  first  permanently  successful 

transatlantic  cable  was  completed,  there  are  now  no  less  than  1500 
distinct  sections  of  submarine  telegraphs  with  an  aggregate  length  of 
about  180,000  miles  and  estimated  to  have  cost  $250,000,000. 

Early  Experiments.  It  is  impossible  to  determine  who  first 
broached  the  subject  of  submarine  cables  and  there  are  many  claim- 
ants for  that  honor.  Certain  it  is  that  a  submarine  cable  was  laid  by 
Captain  J.  B.  Sleeth  under  the  Ohio  river  to  Paducah,  Kentucky, 
in  1845.  This  cable  was  an  iron  wire  wrapped  with  strips  of  canvas 
soaked  in  pitch.  It  worked  well  for  a  time  but  the  insulation  was 
affected  by  the  water  and  electric  losses  became  so  great  that  it  was 
rendered  useless.  Cyrus  W.  Field  offered  Captain  Sleeth  financial 
backing  in  experiments  relating  to  insulation,  but  the  offer  was  de- 
clined and  the  cable  not  patented. 

The  same  year  that  Captain  Sleeth  laid  his  cable  Messrs.  John 
and  Jacob  Brett  laid  before  the  British  Government  a  plan  for  a  cable 
connecting  Europe  and  America,  but  the  spirit  that  had  refused  rec- 
ognition to  Sir  Francis  Ronalds's  electric  telegraph  a  generation 
before  still  prevailed  and  pronounced  this  plan  wholly  impracticable 
and  disdainfully  rejected  it. 

Atmospheric  air,  under  ordinary  conditions,  is  not  a  good  con- 
ductor of  electricity,  and  telegraph  wires  suspended  above  the  earth 
need  insulation  only  at  points  of  contact,  but  when  carried  under 
water  insulation  is  necessary  and  this  was  the  greatest  problem  to  be 
solved  before  submarine  cables  of  great  length  could  be  laid.  In 
1847  gutta  percha  was  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  electrician  and 
soon  adopted  as  an  insulator 

In  1850  the  English  Channel  was  vanquished  by  a  cable  25  miles 
in  length  connecting  Dover  and  Calais.  It  was  a  single  wire  covered 
with  gutta  percha  but  it  was  too  weak  to  stand  the  strain  and  soon 
broke.  A  year  later  a  second  cable  composed  of  four  copper  wires 


542 


THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 


each  insulated  with  gutta  percha  reinforced  by  ten  iron  wires  was  laid, 
worked  successfully,  and  has  furnished  the  model  for  all  subsequent 
cables  of  that  character. 

Transatlantic  Cable.  In  1854  Cyrus  W.  Field,  to  whose  in- 
domitable energy,  personal  magnetism,  and  courage  every  submarine 
transatlantic  cable  is  a  monument,  determined  to  form  a  company  to 
connect  Valentia,  Ireland,  with  Heart's  Content,  Newfoundland,  a 

distance  of  a  little  more  than  1600 
miles.  To  his  enthusiasm  and  great 
common  sense  Mr.  Field  united  a 
high  reputation  as  a  financier.  He 
employed  eminent  electricians  who, 
through  courtesies  shown,  were  able 
to  unite  for  experimental  purposes 
various  lines  laid  over  land  and  un- 
der water  aggregating  about  2000 
miles,  and  proved  that  through  a  dis- 
tance greater  than  across  the  Atlan- 
tic four  signals  a  second  could  be 
sent.  The  Atlantic  Telegraph  Com- 
pany was  organized  December  9, 
1856,  with  a  capital  of  $1,750,000, 
and  in  1857  a  cable  was  manufactured.  The  British  and  American 
governments,  which  had  given  some  financial  aid,  loaned  the  battle 
ships  Agamemnon  and  Niagara  to  aid  in  laying  the  cable.  The  Niagara 
sailed  from  Ireland,  but  when  she  had  steamed  westward  360  miles  a 
sudden  strain  on  the  paying  machinery  caused  the  cable  to  snap,  and, 
to  the  great  dismay  of  all  on  board,  $500,000  worth  of  cable  vanished 
from  sight  and  lay  in  the  bottom  of  the  Atlantic  at  a  depth  of  over 
two  miles.  The  ships  returned  to  Valentia  with  flags  at  half-mast. 
Not  discouraged,  Field  secured  money  for  a  new  attempt,  more  cable 


CYRUS  W.  FIELD. 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  543 

was  made,  and  in  May,  1858,  3000  statute  miles  of  cable  was  divided 
in  halves  and  coiled  in  the  holds  of  H.  M.  S.  Agamemnon  and  the 
U.  S.  S.  Niagara.  The  two  grandest  battle  ships  of  the  time  met  in 
mid-ocean  June  25,  1858,  and  on  June  26  the  cable  was  spliced  and 
three  miles  paid  out  when  an  accident  occurred  to  the  machinery  of  the 
Niagara  and  the  cable  broke.  A  new  splice  was  made  and  40  miles 
was  paid  out  when  another  break  occurred.  A  third  splice  was  made 
with  the  agreement  that  if  more  than  100  miles  was  paid  before  an- 
other break  occurred  both  ships  should  return  to  Valentia ;  200  miles 
was  paid  out  and  hopes  were  running  high  when  a  break  occurred  20 
feet  from  the  stern  of  the  Agamemnon.  The  ships  met  at  Valentia. 
Still  undiscouraged,  Field  secured  a  new  supply  of  cable,  recoaled 
the  ships  and  again  started  on  his  mission.  July  29  a  new  splice 
was  made  in  mid-ocean,  and  as  the  cable  was  paid  out  signals  were 
constantly  sent  from  ship  to  ship  by  means  of  the  cable,  and  on  the 
morning  of  August  5,  1858,  the  ends  were  landed  at  opposite  sides 
of  the  Atlantic,  the  European  terminus  in  Trinity  Bay,  Valentia, 
Ireland,  and  the  American  terminus  in  Bull's  Arm,  Trinity  Bay,  New- 
foundland. On  August  16,  1858,  at  11.12  A.  M.,  the  first  message 
was  transmitted.  It  was  as  follows:  — 

"  Directors  Atlantic  Telegraph  Co.,  Great  Britain,  to  Directors  in 
America. — Europe  and  America  are  united  by  telegraph.  Glory  to  God  in 
the  highest  ;  on  earth  peace,  good  will  toward  men. ' ' 

Then  followed  a  message  from  Queen  Victoria  to  President 
Buchanan. 

"To  the  President  of  the  United  States,  Washington  :  - 

"The  Queen  desires  to  congratulate  the  President  upon  the  successful 
completion  of  this  great  international  work,  in  which  the  Queen  has  taken 
the  deepest  interest. 

' '  The  Queen  is  convinced  that  the  President  will  join  with  her  in  fer- 
vently hoping  that  the  Electric  Cable  which  now  connects  Great  Britain  with 


544          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

the  United  States  will  prove  an  additional  link  between  the  nations  whose 
friendship  is  founded  upon  their  common  interest  and  reciprocal  esteem. 

"The  Queen  has  much  pleasure  in  thus  communicating  with  the  Presi- 
dent, and  renewing  to  him  her  wishes  for  the  prosperity  of  the  United 
States." 

The  President  replied, 

"Washington  City,  Aug.   16,  1858. 
"  To  Her  Majesty,  Victoria,  Queen  of  Great  Britain  : — 

"  The  President  cordially  reciprocates  the  congratulations  of  Her  Maj- 
esty, the  Queen,  on  the  success  of  the  great  international  enterprise  accom- 
plished by  the  science,  skill,  and  indomitable  energy  of  the  two  countries. 
It  is  a  triumph  more  glorious,  because  far  more  useful  to  mankind,  than 
was  ever  won  by  conqueror  on  the  field  of  battle. 

"  May  the  Atlantic  Telegraph,  under  the  blessing  of  Heaven,  prove  to 
be  a  bond  of  perpetual  peace  and  friendship  between  the  kindred  nations, 
and  an  instrument  destined  by  Divine  Providence  to  diffuse  religion,  civili- 
zation, liberty,  and  law  throughout  the  world.  In  this  view  will  not  all 
nations  of  Christendom  spontaneously  unite  in  the  declaration  that  it  shall 
be  forever  neutral,  and  that  its  communications  shall  be  held  sacred  in  pass- 
ing to  their  places  of  destination,  even  in  the  midst  of  hostilities? 

(Signed)  "  JAMES  BUCHANAN.  " 


Great  excitement  prevailed  and  Field  was  the  hero  of  the  hour, 
but  the  cable  worked  with  continually  increasing  difficulty,  and  at 
the  end  of  23  days  after  732  dispatches  had  passed  over  the  wire  it 
becarne  mute  forever,  and  those  who  had  so  ardently  praised  Field 
but  a  few  days  before  as  hotly  reviled  him.  Nevertheless,  one  of 
the  last  dispatches  from  the  London  War  Office,  countermanding  the 
movements  of  the  two  regiments  in  Canada,  had  saved  England  an 
outlay  of  $250,000,  and  this  fact  was  urged  as  showing  the  commer- 
cial value  of  a  cable. 

Like  the  Grecian  giant  who,  thrown  to  earth,  rose  with  strength 
redoubled,  Field  seemed  to  derive  nothing  but  inspiration  from  fail- 
ure and  set  about  organizing  another  company,  but  the  unrest  in 


MEANS    OF    COMMUNICATION.  545 

financial  circles  that  preceded  the  American  Civil  War  and  the 
struggle  that  ensued  delayed  the  next  trial  until  1865.  The  war  had 
shown  that  a  cable  would  have  prevented  many  misunderstandings 
between  England  and  America,  and  the  London  Times  afterward 
said,  "We  nearly  went  to  war  with  America  because  we  had  no  tele- 
graph across  the  Atlantic." 

The  cable  of  1865  was  much  larger  and  stronger  than  the  other. 
The  core  of  the  1858  cable  weighed  107  pounds  to  the  mile,  that  of 
the  new  one  300  pounds  to  the  mile,  and  the  insulation  was  calculated 
to  be  100  times  greater. 

The  "  Great  Eastern."  The  risk  and  inconvenience  of  dividing 
the  cable  between  two  great  vessels  had  been  shown,  and  Brunei's 
Great  Eastern  was  chartered  for  the  occasion,  a  work  for  which  she 
showed  herself  particularly  serviceable.  On  July  23,  1865,  the  shore 
end  of  the  cable  at  Valentia  was  spliced  to  the  cable  coiled  within  the 
tanks  of  the  Great  Eastern,  and  the  largest  vessel  afloat  began  her 
journey  westward.  Electrical  instruments  tested  the  cable  from  time 
to  time  as  it  was  paid  out.  Three  times  faults  were  found,  the  cable 
brought  in  over  the  bows,  repaired  and  lowered,  but  at  the  fourth  at- 
tempt, when  1 1 86  miles  had  been  laid  and  the  ship  was  only  606 
miles  from  the  end  of  its  journey  the  cable  broke.  For  nine  days 
they  grappled,  and  three  times  the  cable  was  hooked  and  partially 
raised  when  the  grappling  ropes  broke  and  away  rushed  the  grappling 
irons,  rope,  and  cable  to  the  bottom  of  the  ocean.  It  was  only 
after  there  was  not  enough  rope  left  to  reach  the  bottom  that  a  buoy 
was  placed  to  mark  the  spot  where  the  cable  and  their  hopes  lay 
buried,  and  Field  steamed  back  to  England  to  face  the  men  whose 
capital  lay  at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean. 

With  almost  incredible  courage,  persistence,  and  persuasive  power 
he  explained,  pleaded,  argued,  and  so  prevailed  upon  the  capitalists 
that  the  Anglo-American  Telegraph  Company  was  organized  Decem- 


546 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


her  24,  1865,  and  in  fourteen  days  a  capital  of  more  than  $3,000,000 
had  been  pledged.  A  new  cable  was  made  and  on  July  13,  1866,  the 
Great  Eastern  again  connected  a  cable  within  her  hold  with  the  shore 
end  at  Valentia,  steamed  westward  and'  after  an  uneventful  voyage 
landed  the  cable  end  at  Heart's  Content,  Newfoundland,  July  27, 
1866.  The  electrical  connection  was  satisfactory  and  the  cable  at 
once  went  into  operation.  To  make  the  triumph  still  greater  the 
Great  Eastern  steamed  back  to  where  the  cable  had  been  lost  in  1865, 
and  after  twenty  days'  fishing  secured  the  end,  made  a  splice,  and  on 
the  8th  of  September  landed  the  second  cable's  end  at  Heart's  Con- 
tent, thus  within  37  days  completing  two  cables,  both  in  working 
order,  across  the  Atlantic. 

Cyrus  W.  Field  was  born  at  Stockbridge,  Massachusetts,  Novem- 
ber 30,  1819.  When  sixteen  years 
of  age,  with  $8  in  his  pocket  he 
left  home  to  make  his  fortune,  and 
served  as  errand  boy  in  A.  T.  Stew- 
art's store  in  New  York  city,  one 
year  for  $50.  Eighteen  years  there- 
after he  was  worth  $250,000. 

Field  died  July  12,  1892,  and 
during  the  closing  months  of  his 
life  was  able  to  keep  up  the  pay- 
ments on  his  life  insurance  policies 
only  through  the  kindly  aid  of  a 
friend,  J.  Pierpont  Morgan. 

Later   Efforts.       Field's   efforts 
LAYING  ATLANTIC  CABLE.  smoothed   the    way  for   his    succes- 

sors,  until  now  the  laying  of  an  Atlantic  cable  attracts  no  more  at- 
tention than  the  building  of  a  great  bridge  or  the  launching  of 
a  new  battle  ship,  and  competition  has  reduced  cable  tolls  from  one 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION. 


547 


pound  ($4.86)  to  one  shilling  (25  cents)  per  word.  The  laying  in 
1894  of  the  third  line  of  the  Commercial  Cable  Company  occupied 
but  20  days.  This  cable  was  laid  by  the  especially  equipped  tele- 
graph ship  Faraday,  on  board  of  which  1700  miles  of  cable  was 
coiled  in  three  large  tanks.  At  sea,  the  cable  was  run  out  over  a 
large  pulley  at  the  stern  of  the  ship.  Between  the  tanks  and  the 
stern  it  passed  over  retarding  mechanism  which  consisted  of  several 
wheels  and  a  large  brake  wheel  around  which  it  passed  several  times. 
It  then  passed  under  the  dynamometer,  where  the  stress  on  the  cable 
was  accurately  measured.  During  the  whole  time  that  the  cable  was 
being  made  and  laid,  electrical  tests  were  made,  so  as  to  be  sure  that 
everything  was  in  order,  for  a  single  fault  would  ruin  the  whole  cable. 
When  all  conditions  are  favorable  a  cable  can  be  laid  at  the  rate  of 
about  seven  nautical  miles  an  hour. 

Mechanism  of  Cables.  Nearly  all  the  great  mileage  of  sub- 
marine cables  has  been  manufactured  in  England  on  the  banks  of  the 
Thames.  Modern  cables  are  made  in  four  sizes  according  to  the 
depth  of  water  in  which  they  are  laid.  The  smallest,  for 
deep  sea  service,  is  ^-inch  in  diameter;  for  somewhat 
lesser  depths  a  larger  (i^-inch)  size  is  used.  The  next 

size  is  i  y^  inches  in  diameter, 
and  the  land  ends  of  all  are 
about  2  T/2,  inches  in  diameter. 
The  core  in  each  is  of  the 
same  size,  the  difference  in 
diameter  being  due  to  extra 
thickness  of  the  coverings. 
A  submarine  cable  is  made 
up  of  five  layers.  The  inner 
one  (core)  is  made  up  of  a  strand  of  twisted  copper  wires  which  con- 
stitutes the  conductor  of  the  electric  force.  For  the  purpose  of 


SECTIONS  OF  SUBMARINE   CABLE. 


548  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN   MECHANISM. 

insulation  the  core  is  covered  with  a  layer  of  gutta  percha.  The 
third  layer  is  a  covering  of  tarred  jute  yarn  wound  in  a  spiral  manner 
to  protect  the  insulation  from  damage  by  the  fourth  layer,  which  is 
made  of  steel  wires  laid  close  together  and  slightly  twisted,  so  that 
while  they  give  the  cable  great  tensile  strength,  they  are  also  flexible 
and  elastic.  Around  all  this  is  pressed  a  layer  of  a  bituminous  com- 
pound to  protect  the  whole  structure  from  the  action  of  the  water. 

A  single  machine  performs  all  these  operations,  the  core  being 
fed  to  it  in  the  form  of  copper  wires,  which  the  machine  twists  into 
the  proper  form  and  then  presses  the  covering  of  gutta  percha  firmly 
around  it.  Next  the  jute  yarn  is  fed  in,  and  then  the  steel  wires, 
each  wire  being  pressed  into  its  exact  place  and  given  the  desired 
twist  by  the  machine.  The  cable  is  then  passed  under  a  spout  from 
which  runs  the  melted  bituminous  compound,  and  is  led  into  a  circu- 
lar press  which  sets  it  firmly  to  its  proper  shape  and  size,  after  which 
the  cable  is  coiled  in  large  iron  tanks  in  which  it  is  kept  under  water. 

Gutta  Percha  is  the  hardened  milky  juice  derived  chiefly  from  a 
large  tree  which  grows  in  Borneo  and  some  other  islands  of  the  East 
Indies.  It  becomes  soft  and  pasty  at  a  temperature  of  about  115° 
Fahrenheit  and  can  then  be  molded  into  any  form  desired.  The 
cable  running  from  Brest,  France,  to  Cape  Cod,  Massachusetts,  is 
3250  miles  in  length,  and  yet  the  electric  current  finds  it  easier  to 
traverse  this  immense  distance  through  the  copper  wire  of  the  cable's 
core  than  to  pass  through  the  quarter  inch  of  gutta  percha  which 
covers  it,  for,  compared  with  copper,  gutta  percha  is  about  1-60,000,- 
000,000,000,000,000  as  good  a  conductor  of  electricity.  The  supply 
of  gutta  percha  is  limited.  It  is  reported  that  the  gutta  percha 
of  Sumatra  and  Borneo  is  nearly  exhausted  owing  to  the  reckless 
manner  in  which  the  trees  have  been  cut,  and  German  experts 
consider  the  Philippines  the  next  field  for  the  cheap  and  profitable 
production  of  gutta  percha.  The  insulation  required  for  the  third 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  549 

Commercial  Cable  raised  the  price  of  gutta  percha  50  per  cent,  in 
the  markets  of  the  world.  If  to  furnish  insulation  for  a  cable  2500 
miles  in  length  was  difficult,  what  will  be  the  cost  of  gutta  percha  for 
an  All-British  or  American  cable  7000  or  8000  miles  in  length  to 
cross  the  Pacific  ? 

Breaks  in  cables  are  frequent,  and  deep  sea  cables  are  disabled 
so  often  in  the  East  Indian  Archipelago  by  earthquakes  as  to  attract 
little  attention.  If  a  break  or  leak  occurs  the  electrician  calculates  the 
distance  to  it  by  the  capacity  and  resistance  of  the  remaining  portion 
of  the  wire.  Resistance  is  the  retardation  that  the  wire  causes  in  the 
passage  of  a  current  of  standard  intensity.  Capacity  is  the  amount 
of  electricity  a  given  amount  of  wire  can  hold  and  then  give  up  at 
one  discharge.  When  the  cable  is  laid  the  resistance  and  capacity 
per  mile,  or  even  per  foot,  are  determined.  If  the  cable  breaks  in 
two,  electricians  measure  the  resistance  of  the  remaining  portion  and 
by  proportion  calculate  the  distance  to  the  break.  A  repair  ship  is 
then  sent  to  the  spot  and  the  immense  fishing  job  commences,  for  the 
ends  of  the  cable  may  lie  at  a  depth  of  a  mile  or  two.  A  four- 
pronged  grapnel  is  attached  to  a  rope  with  a  wire  center  making 
electrical  connection  with  the  grapnel.  Where  each  prong  joins  the 
shank  is  a  push-button  that  connects  with  the  core  of  the  rope.  The 
grapnel  is  lowered  and  dragged  across  the  bottom  of  the  ocean.  If 
it  catches  the  cable  the  latter  sinks  into  the  hollow  of  the  hook- 
shaped  prong,  presses  the  electric  button,  which  signifies  its  capture 
to  those  on  board  by  ringing  a  bell.  An  old  and  deteriorated  cable 
must  be  handled  with  great  care,  and  such  jobs  require  patience  and 
skill  of  a  high  order. 

A  Famed  Point.  On  Cape  Canso,  the  most  eastern  point  of 
Canada,  is  situated  the  little  village  of  Hazel  Hill,  which,  though  50 
miles  by  road  and  30  miles  by  water  from  the  nearest  railroad  station, 
is  still  the  best  informed  point  in  America,  for  every  item  of  impor- 


550  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

tant  news  from  abroad  is  known  here  before  it  reaches  the  sanctum  of 
the  most  enterprising  editor  on  the  continent.  Three  cables  of  the 
Commercial  Cable  Company  are  landed  here  and,  hardly  a  mile  away, 
four  cables  of  the  American  Cable  Company.  Fifteen  thousand  five 
hundred  miles  of  ocean  cables  center  here,  and  the  news  service  of 
the  whole  world  depends  in  a  large  measure  on  the  delicate  machinery 
at  this  point  being  kept  in  perfect  working  order  by  men  who  live  and 
work  in  this  isolated  but  far  from  lonely  spot. 

The  McGill  University  at  Montreal  in  1891  set  about  determining 
the  exact  longitude  of  Montreal  and  other  points  on  the  Atlantic 
seaboard,  reckoning  from  Greenwich,  England.  To  work  out  the 
calculations  it  became  necessary  to  know  the  exact  time  it  took  to 
send  a  telegraphic  signal  across  the  Atlantic,  and  for  this  purpose  a 
circuit  was  established  and  the  signal  flashed  from  Montreal  to 
Greenwich  and  return,  8000  miles,  in  one  second.  With  the  Pacific 
cable  established,  completing  the  electric  chain,  the  highest  flights  of 
the  imagination  of  the  poet,  "  I'll  put  a  girdle  'round  the  earth  in 
forty  minutes,"  will  have  been  more  than  realized  by  the  genius  of 
the  inventor.  In  practical  operation,  of  course,  more  time  is  re- 
quired. In  1884  a  communication  sent  from  New  York  to  London 
and  an  answer  returned  in  45  seconds,  held  the  record  for  some  time, 
but  in  October,  1894,  a  message  was  sent  by  the  third  Commercial 
Cable  from  New  York  to  London  and  an  answer  received  in  5  sec- 
onds. September  21,  1894,  a  Manchester  company  sent  a  message 
to  Victoria,  British  Columbia,  over  the  lines  of  the  Commercial  Cable 
Company  to  the  Canadian  Pacific  Telegraph  Company  and  received 
a  reply  in  90  seconds.  The  total  distance  is  13,000  miles. 

The  deepest  cable  in  the  world  is  that  laid  in  1896  from  New 
York  to  Cape  Haytien  with  the  Southern  line  connecting  with  South 
America  and  Santiago  de  Cuba.  During  the  land  battle  of  Santiago 
a  message  was  sent  from  the  White  House  to  the  battlefield  and  an 
answer  returned  in  12  minutes. 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  551 

Uses  of  Cables.  Cables  play  an  important  part  in  the  strategy 
of  war.  The  importance  of  the  cable  service  while  Cervera's  squad- 
ron was  playing  "hide-and-seek"  during  the  Spanish-American  war 
has  not  yet  been  forgotten.  For  lack  of  a  cable  on  January  8,  1815, 
thousands  of  brave  men  were  killed  and  wounded  at  New  Orleans 
because  they  did  not  know  that  a  treaty  of  peace  had  been  signed  at 
Ghent  fifteen  days  before. 

Prior  to  the  laying  of  the  Atlantic  cable,  communication  between 
New  York  and  London  might  require  anywhere  from  two  weeks  to  a 
month,  depending  upon  the  weather.  The  New  York  Herald,  under 
the  management  of  the  elder  Bennett,  fitted  out  swift  dispatch  boats 
to  meet  transatlantic  ships  some  distance  from  New  York  harbor, 
catch  the  latest  news  from  Europe,  and  hurry  into  the  city  with  it  for 
the  exclusive  benefit  of  that  paper.  To-day  the  Paris  and  New 
York  editions  of  the  same  paper  contain  practically  the  same  world 
news.  The  commercial  world  has  become  so  accustomed  to  the 
cable  that  it  would  seem  almost  impossible  to  do  without  it.  Trans- 
actions involving  millions  of  dollars  depend  on  each  day's  cable 
news. 

An  All-British  Cable  is  now  determined  upon  for  the  Pacific  and 
when  completed  will  give  Britain  the  most  extensive  and  perfect 
telegraphic  system  in  existence,  placing  the  nation  in  direct  com- 
munication with  all  her  colonies  encircling  the  globe  and  with  the 
fortified  and  garrisoned  coaling  stations  of  Hong  Kong,  Singapore* 
Trincomalee,  Colombo,  Aden,  Cape  Town,  Simon's  Bay,  St.  Helena, 
Ascension,  St.  Lucia,  Jamaica,  Bermuda,  Halifax,  Esquimalt,  King 
George's  Sound,  and  Thursday  Island.  It  will  also  connect  the  fol- 
lowing "  defended  ports,"  Durban,  Karachi,  Bombay,  Madras,  Cal- 
cutta, Rangoon,  Adelaide,  Melbourne,  Hobart,  Sidney,  Newcastle, 
Brisbane,  Townsville,  Auckland,  Wellington,  Lyttleton,  Dunedin. 
This  Imperial  Cable  system  means  the  laying  of  25,000  miles  of 


552  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

cable  at  an  expense  of  about  $30,000,000.  The  British  Pacific 
cable,  the  expense  of  which  is  to  be  borne  by  Canada,  Australia,  and 
the  Home  Government,  will  run  from  Vancouver  on  the  Pacific  coast 
of  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  southwesterly  about  3561  nautical  miles, 
including  slack,  to  Fanning  Island,  about  1000  statute  miles  south  of 
Honolulu.  The  island  is  a  coral  reef  only  two  or  three  feet  above 
high  water  except  in  a  few  places,  where  it  rises  to  about  10  feet. 
Picture  the  life  of  the  operators  in  such  a  place,  cut  off  from  all  so- 
ciety, but  receiving  each  day  the  news  from  the  capitals  of  the  world. 
The  cable  will  run  from  Fanning  to  Fiji  Island,  2098  miles;  Fiji 
Island  to  Norfolk,  961  miles;  Norfolk  to  Queensland,  Australia,  834 
miles.  Total,  7454  miles. 

As  a  chain  is  no  stronger  than  its  weakest  link,  so  a  cable  is  no 
faster  than  its  slowest  section.  The  section  from  Vancouver  to  Fan- 
ning is  400  or  500  miles  longer  than  any  other  cable  in  existence,  and 
cable  speed  decreases  as  the  square  of  the  distance.  Hence  a  cable 
twice  as  long  as  another  will  have  but  one  fourth  the  speed. 

For  the  control  of  the  sea  ships,  naval  bases  and  coaling  stations 
are  required,  and  that  they  may  work  together  and  with  the  greatest 
efficiency  sure,  means  of  communication  are  necessary.  A  high  Brit- 
ish authority  has  said  that  the  value  of  the  English  navy  is  increased 
more  than  one  half  by  the  system  of  submarine  cables  wholly  under 
British  control,  connecting  the  colonies,  coaling  stations,  and  forti- 
fied ports. 

An  American  Pacific  cable  affording  communication  with  the 
Sandwich  Islands  and  the  Philippines  is  so  necessary  that  it  probably 
will  soon  be  forthcoming.  At  present  cables  from  Washington  to 
Manila  go  :  "To  New  York  by  land  ;  to  Valentia,  Ireland,  by  cable  ; 
to  Brighton,  England,  cable  and  land ;  to  Havre,  France,  cable ;  to 
Marseilles,  land  ;  to  Alexandria,  Egypt,  cable  ;  to  Suez,  Egypt,  land  ; 
to  Aden,  Arabia,  cable;  to  Bombay,  India,  cable;  to  Madras,  land; 


MEANS    OF    COMMUNICATION.  553 

to  Singapore,  Malayan  Peninsula,  cable;  to  Saigon,  Cochin  China, 
cable;  to  Hong-Kong,  cable;  to  Manila,  Philippine  Islands,  cable. 
Distance  14,000  miles.  Number  of  transmissions  fourteen."*  The 
present  cable  rates  to  Manila  from  Washington  are  $2.38  per  word, 
the  government  rate  $2.255  Per  word,  right  of  way  messages  three 
times  the  regular  rate. 

The  War  Department's  messages  to  and  from  the  Philippine 
Islands  for  five  months  averaged  $27, 114.12  monthly,  90  per  cent,  of 
which  went  to  foreign  corporations,  or  much  more  than  enough  to 
pay  the  interest  on  a  Pacific  cable.  The  following  table  shows  two 
routes  proposed,  the  distance  direct  plus  10  per  cent,  allowance  for 
an  extra  length  or  slack  that  must  be  given  to  the  cable. 

Miles  Miles 

San  Francisco  to  Honolulu           2286  San  Francisco  to  Honolulu  2286 

Honolulu  to  Midway  Island         1254  Honolulu  to  Wake  Island  2205 

Midway  Island  to  Guam               2523  Wake  Island  to  Guam  1435 

Guam  to  Dingala  Bay,  P.  I.          1496  Guam  to  Dingala  Bay,  P.  I.  1496 

Total  via  Midway  Islands        7559  Total  via  Wake  Island  7422 

The  longest  link  of  this  cable  would  be  less  than  the  cable  run- 
ning from  Brest,  France,  to  Cape  Cod,  Massachusetts,  and  would 
give  greater  sending  speed  than  the  long  link  of  the  British  cable 
running  from  Vancouver  to  Fanning  Island.  If  both  cables  were 
completed,  a  cable  1000  miles  in  length  connecting  Fanning  Island 
and  Honolulu  would  be  of  great  advantage  to  both  countries  as  it 
would  still  allow  communication  in  case  a  cable  were  broken  by  acci- 
dent or  cut  in  course  of  war. 

Wake  Island  is  situated  in  north  latitude  19°  8',  east  longitude 
1 66°  3  i'.  It  is  a  low  sandy  island  three  miles  wide  and  five  miles  long 
inclosing  a  lagoon.  The  island  contains  no  fresh  water,  has  but  little 


*Capt.  G.  O.  Squire. 


554         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

vegetation,  is  surrounded  by  reefs,  and  is  swept  over  by  spray  and 
probably  by  breakers  during  heavy  storms. 

Guam  is  the  largest  and  most  southern  of  the  Ladrone  group  of 
seventeen  islands,  and  has  a  population  of  about  9000.  The  island 
has  many  low  mountains  ranging  from  1000  to  1600  feet  in  height. 
The  soil  is  fertile  and  the  climate  healthful. 

The  receiving  and  sending  apparatus  of  a  submarine  cable  is 
most  delicate.  Although  after  Admiral  Dewey  cut  the  cable  con- 
necting Manila  with  Hong-Kong  he  buoyed  both  ends,  he  had  no 
instruments  nor  was  able  to  devise  any  by  which 'he  could  establish 
cable  communication.  With  the  ordinary  Morse  instruments  hardly 
a  word  a  minute  could  be  sent,  and  the  use  of  strong  currents  is 
extremely  objectionable. 

The  siphon  recorder,  invented  by  Lord  Kelvin,  consists  of  an  ink 
siphon,  one  end  dipping  into  the  ink,  the  other  suspended  and  touch- 
ing a  paper  ribbon  caused  to  move  like  the  tape  in  a  stockbroker's 
ticker.  A  powerful  current  of  electricity  sent  through  the  ink  causes 
it  to  flow  very  readily  and  the  ink  siphon  forms  part  of  a  delicate 
piece  of  mechanism,  which,  like  a  magnetic  needle,  sways  to  right  or 
left  under  the  impulse  of  positive  or  negative  electric  currents  and 
forms  a  zigzag  line  from  which  the  message  is  read. 

The  mirror  galvanometer  is  a  minute  mirror  about  %&  of  an  inch 
in  diameter  with  a  tiny  magnet  cemented  to  its  back,  the  whole 
weighing  not  more  than  a  grain,  and  suspended  by  a  silk  fiber.  A 
lamp  is  placed  so  that  its  rays  fall  upon  the  mirror.  The  magnet  on 
the  suspended  mirror  yielding  to  the  attraction  of  positive  or  nega- 
tive currents  rotates  the  mirror  slightly  and  throws  the  rays  of  light 
upon  a  screen  and  their  position  to  the  right  or  left  of  a  central  point 
conveys  intelligible  signals  to  the  operator  who  receives  the  message. 
The  mirror  galvanometer  is  also  the  invention  of  Lord  Kelvin,  who 
did  more  than  any  other  man  to  render  submarine  cables  efficient. 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  555 

THE    TELEPHONE. 

Millions  of  dollars  spent  in  litigation  might  have  been  saved  had 
a  clerk  in  the  United  States  Patent  Office  Department  been  gifted 
with  second  sight  and  entered  the  hour  of  an  application  for  a  caveat 
"  of  a  new  art  of  transmitting  vocal  sounds  telegraphically,"  filed  by 
Professor  Elisha  Gray,  and  an 
application  for  a  patent  "for 
the  electrical  transmission  of 
sounds  or  noises  of  any  kind," 
filed  by  Alexander  Graham 
Bell.  Both  applications  were 
filed  February  14,  1876,  and 
the  records  do  not  show  whether  the  caveat  preceded  the  application 
or  vice  versa.  The  patent  for  a  telephone  was  issued  to  Bell.  Con- 
tests in  the  Patent  Office  and  courts  followed,  not  only  with  Gray,  but 
with  Edison,  Berliner,  Richmond,  Holcombe,  Dolbear,  Volker,  and 
others,  and  the  decisions  of  the  courts  were  always  in  Bell's  favor. 

The  telephone  in  its  simplest  form  consists  of  a  flat  soft  iron  core 
having  four  permanent  steel  magnets  arranged  in  pairs  on  opposite 
sides.  One  end  of  the  core  projects  beyond  the  magnets  and  re- 
ceives a  wooden  spool  around  which  is  wound  numerous  coils  of  silk- 
covered  wire.  A  soft  iron  spacing-piece  separates  the  opposite  ends 
of  the  magnet,  the  ends  of  the  wires  from  the  coil  are  carried  back 
to  the  other  end,  and  the  whole  is  inclosed  within  the  familiar  rubber 
handle  with  the  two  set  screws  at  the  end  to  which  conductors  are 
fastened.  A  round  cap  screws  on  to  the  handle  and  holds  in  position 
a  thin  plate  of  soft  iron  brought  as  closely  as  possible  to  the  core  of 
the  magnet  without  touching  it  in  any  of  its  vibrations. 

Bell's  first  telephone  had  a  diaphragm  made  of  gold  beater's  skin, 
to  which  was  glued  a  circular  piece  of  clock-spring.  Words  spoken 
before  this  drumhead  set  it  in  vibration  as  it  approached  and  receded 


556 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


from,  the  core  of  the  magnet  and  affected  the  magnetism  and  so  set 
up  slight  variations  in  the  strength  of  the  electric  current  passing 
through  the  coil  of  the  magnet.  The  wires  from  the  coil  were  con- 
tinued to  another  station  and  attached  to  an  apparatus  precisely  sim- 
ilar and  reproduced  in  the  second  instrument  vibrations  of  the  dia- 
phragm that  coincided  exactly  with  the  vibrations  of  the  first,  and 
so  reproduced  the  like  sounds  that  caused  those  of  the  first. 

The  apparatus  first  described  will  reproduce  sounds  and  is  com- 
monly used  as  a  receiver,  but  the  transmitter  is  the   work  of  Blake, 

Hughes,  Gray,  Edison, 
Berliner,  and  others,  and 
is  a  more  delicate  instru- 
ment. When  the  trans- 
mitter was  produced  the 
telephone  sprang  into  im- 
mediate use.  The  improve- 
ments consisted  in  the  dis- 
covery that  if  a  piece  of 
carbon  is  rested  lightly 
upon  another  and  an  elec- 
tric current  passed  from 
one  to  the  other  in  a  circuit 
in  which  there  is  a  Bell 
telephone  receiver,  the  re- 
ceiver will  respond  to  the 
finest  sounds  in  the  vicinity  of  the  carbon,  because  where  two  car- 
bons touch,  the  contact  is  imperfect  and  the  slightest  disturbance  of 
the  current,  of  necessity,  varies  the  resistance  of  the  circuit,  and  this 
variation  operates  to  produce  sounds  from  the  receiver.  In  the 
ordinary  telephone  that  hangs  on  the  wall,  the  transmitter  is  in  the 
little  box  into  which  the  talking  is  done. 


UNDER  SIDE  OF  A  TELEPHONE  SWITCHBOARD, 
SHOWING  OVER  2,000  WIRES. 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  557 

Unsolved  Problems.  As  yet  it  has  not  been  found  practicable 
to  send  several  telephonic  messages  simultaneously  over  the  same 
wire  and  so  long  distance  telephone  wires  cannot  carry  the  amount 
of  business  of  telegraph  wires.  The  longest  lines  affording  direct 
communications  by  telephone  are:  Boston  to  Omaha,  1556  miles; 
Boston  to  Kansas  City,  1609  miles;  Boston  to  Little  Rock,  1793 
miles.  No  really  efficient  instrument  that  will  act  for  the  telephone 
as  the  "relay"  does  for  the  telegraph  has  yet  been  invented,  and  the 
foregoing  results  have  been  achieved  only  by  using  large,  pure,  hard- 
drawn  copper  wires  instead  of  iron.  It  is  impossible  with  present 
instruments  to  communicate  vocally  through  a  submarine  cable  more 
than  27  miles  in  length. 

Metallic  Circuit.  When  the  telephone  first  came  into  use  much 
difficulty  was  experienced  in  using  a  single  wire  when  laid  near  tele- 
graph or  electric  wires  because  of  the  induced  currents  set  up.  The 
telephone  is  one  of  the  most  sensitive  of  electrical  instruments  and 
suffers  from  electrical  disturbances  too  feeble  to  be  felt  by  almost  any 
other,  hence  is  easily  affected  by  any  "induced  currents"  in  its 
vicinity.  To  protect  it  from  such  influences  it  has  been  found  desir- 
able to  employ,  instead  of  a  single  wire  running  from  station  to  sta- 
tion and  connecting  with  the  ground  at  the  end,  a  metallic  circuit. 
The  circuit  comprises  two  insulated  wires  of  the  same  cross  section 
laid  together  with  a  slight  twist  so  as  to  average  always  the  same  dis- 
tance from  any  disturbing  wire. 

The  telephone  has  been  a  great  boon  to  the  Chinaman,  who  had 
no  alphabet  or  written  signs  that  could  be  reduced  to  a  simple 
telegraphic  code,  and  the  sharp,  high-pitched,  jerky  voice  of  the 
Chinaman  seems  particularly  well  fitted  for  long  distance  telephone 
business. 

Arrangements  are  now  made  by  which  telegraphic  and  telephonic 
messages  may  be  sent  over  the  same  line  simultaneously.  The  tele- 


558          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

phone  does  not  interfere  at  all  with  the  telegraph,  but  the  latter 
produces  a  buzzing  or  knocking  rather  disagreeable  to  the  hearer,  but 
that  feature  is  being  overcome. 

Although  the  telephone  business  dates  only  from  1877,  one  com- 
pany alone,  the  Bell,  had  in  1900  1239  exchanges,  1187  branch 
offices,  more  than  1,000,000  miles  of  wire  and  more  than  25,000  em- 
ployees. 

Wireless  telephony  is  now  an  accomplished  fact  and  employs 
simpler  methods  than  the  system  of  wireless  telegraphy  to  which 
Marconi  has  given  his  name.  In  an  address  delivered  in  1900  before 
the  British  Association,  Sir  William  Henry  Preece  stated  that  his  first 
experiments  in  wireless  telephony  were  made  in  February,  1894, 
across  Loch  Ness.  The  trial  showed  that  it  was  possible  to  exchange 
speech  across  the  loch  at  an  average  distance  of  i  J/$  miles.  "  The 
sensation  created  in  1897  by  Mr.  Marconi's  application  of  Hertzian 
waves  distracted  attention  from  the  more  practical,  simpler,  and  older 
method.  In  1899,  I  conducted  some  careful  experiments  on  the 
Menai  strait.  No  special  apparatus  seems  necessary.  The  ordi- 
nary telephonic  transmitters  and  receivers  were  used.  It  became 
desirable  to  establish  communication  between  the  islands  or  rocks 
known  as  'the  Skerries'  and  the  mainland  of  Anglesey,  and  it  was 
determined  to  do  this  by  wireless  telephony.  The  bottom  of  the 
channel  is  too  rough  and  the  currents  too  violent  for  a  cable.  A 
wire  750  yards  in  length  was  therefore  erected  along  the  Skerries  and 
another  on  the  mainland  ^l/2  miles  in  length.  Each  line  terminates 
by  earth  plates  in  the  sea.  The  average  distance  between  the  parallel 
portions  of  the  two  wires  is  2.8  miles.  Telephonic  communication 
is  readily  maintained  and  the  service  is  a  good  one.  Wireless  teleph- 
ony across  the  sea  is  now  a  practical  and  commercial  system." 

The  Telautograph  is  an  instrument  invented  by  Prof.  Elisha  Gray 
by  which  a  man's  own  handwriting  can  be  reproduced  \\\  facsimile  at 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  559 

a  distance,  as  though  a  man  were  writing  with  a  pen  having  two 
points  widely  separated,  both  moving  at  the  same  time  and  making 
exactly  the  same  motions.  As  the  inventor  says,  "  By  this  system  a 
man  may  transact  business  with  the  same  accuracy  as  by  mail  and 
with  the  same  celerity  as  by«  the  electric  telegraph.  A  broker  may 
buy  or  sell  with  his  own  signature  attached  to  the  order  and  do  it  as 
quickly  as  he  could  by  any  other  method  of  telegraphing  and  with 
absolute  accuracy,  secrecy,  and  perfect  identification."  It  was  the  in- 
ventor's idea  that  the  telautograph  should  be  used  in  connection 
with  the  telephone,  an  ordinary  switch  being  sufficient  to  connect  the 
two  systems  and  permitting  them  to  be  used  interchangeably. 

Signaling  through  Water.  The  closing  day  of  the  nineteenth 
century  witnessed  a  successful  experiment  conducted  by  Prof.  Elisha 
Gray  and  Arthur  J.  Mundy  of  Boston  before  scientists  from  Harvard 
and  officers  of  the  United  States  navy.  A  boat  equipped  with  an 
Soo-pound  fog  bell  was  able  to  transmit  sounds  under  water  at  dis- 
tances of  i  j£,  4,  8,  and  12  miles  in  the  open  sea.  The  electric  cur- 
rent was  supplied  by  a  small  dynamo  driven  by  a  gasoline  engine. 
The  bell  was  lowered  through  a  well-hole  in  the  center  of  the  boat 
until  20  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  water  and  made  to  ring  con- 
tinuously or  any  desired  number  of  strokes  at  the  will  of  the 
operator. 

If  dangerous  rocks  were  indicated  by  such  a  bell,  a  vessel  might 
be  fitted  with  an  electrical  receiver  which  would  ring  a  gong  on 
board  the  ship  when  approaching  within  range  of  the  signal  sent 
from  the  bell  and  thus  receive  warning  of  "  the  perilous  rock." 

It  is  of  course  obvious  that  by  equipping  ships  with  these  sound 
producers  and  sound  receivers,  intelligible  messages  may  be  sent  back 
and  forth,  either  between  ships  or  between  ships  and  the  shore. 
Again,  vessels  thus  equipped  may  avoid  collision  by  notifying  each 
other  of  their  approach  and  the  direction  of  their  course.  Again, 


560  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

light-ships  can  be  put  into  communication  with  the  shore  by  merely 
anchoring  a  submerged  receiver  within  a  short  distance  of  the  light- 
ship, which,  being  equipped  with  a  submerged  bell,  can  announce 
the  arrival  of  incoming  vessels.  This  is  a  problem  which  has  bothered 
the  government,  owing  to  the  difficulty  of  attaching  a  telegraph 
cable  to  a  ship  which  is  swinging  around  a  mooring. 

The  electrical  receiver  can  be  used  for  detecting  the  approach  of 
a  submarine  torpedo  boat,  the  noise  of  which  can  be  plainly  heard  at 
a  distance  of  several  miles,  the  sound  being  intensified  by  the  fact 
that  the  submerged  boat  must  transmit  all  its  vibrations  to  the  water, 
which  incloses  it  on  all  sides.  Even  small  steam  tugs  on  the  surface 
of  the  water  can  be  heard  at  a  distance  of  two  miles,  the  click  of 
their  machinery  being  distinctly  audible.  In  the  latter  case  only  a 
fraction  of  the  sound  produced  by  the  tug  enters  the  water,  most  of 
it  being  transmitted  through  the  air;  but  a  submarine  boat  must 
give  all  her  vibratory  noises  to  the  water.  As  the  receiver  will  tell 
the  direction  whence  the  sounds  proceed,  the  war  ship  thus  attacked 
may  choose  between  running  away  or  waiting  till  the  torpedo  boat 
comes  within  range  and  then  fighting  her  with  her  own  weapons 
under  water. 

Professor  Gray  died  suddenly  with  neuralgia  of  the  heart  January 
20,  1901.  He  was  eminent  for  his  discoveries  in  electrical  science 
and  a  party  to  the  famous  25  years  of  litigation  with  Professor 
Alexander  Graham  Bell  concerning  the  priority  of  invention  of  the 
telephone.  Professor  Gray  believed  that  his  caveat  was  disclosed  to 
Professor  Bell  after  it  was  filed,  and  this  and  the  long  litigation  em- 
bittered his  late  years.  He  died  poor,  although  he  received  compar- 
atively large  sums  from  time  to  time  for  his  inventions,  but  invariably 
used  the  money  in  expensive  experiments.  At  one  time  his  home 
was  filled  with  beautiful  pictures  and  statuary,  which  financial  re- 
verses compelled  him  to  sell. 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  561 

THE   PHONOGRAPH. 

The  phonograph,  invented  almost  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  has 
become  so  familiar  that  some  have  lost  a  proper  appreciation  of  its 
worth.  It  is  another  one  of  those  "  accidental  discoveries,"  but 
like  most  accidental  discoveries  required  the  presence  of  an  alert 
educated  mind,  quick  to  see  and  appreciate  phenomena  that  would 
have  escaped  the  attention  of  a  duller  person.  Mr.  Edison  says  of 
the  phonograph:  "My  discovery  came  to  me  almost  accidentally, 
while  I  was  busy  with  experiments  having  a  different  object  in  view. 
I  was  engaged  upon  a  machine  intended  to  repeat  Morse  characters, 
which  were  recorded  on  paper,  by  indentations  that  transferred  their 
message  to  another  circuit  automatically  when  passed  under  a  trac- 
ing point  connected  with  a  circuit-closing  apparatus.  I  found  that 
when  the  cylinder  carrying  the  indented  paper  was  turned  with  great 
swiftness  it  gave  off  a  humming  noise,  a  musical  rhythmic  sound 
resembling  that  of  human  talk,  heard  indistinctly.  This  led  me  to 
try  fitting  a  diaphragm  to  the  machine,  which  would  receive  the 
vibrations  or  sound  waves  made  by  my  voice  when  I  talked  to  it  and 
register  these  vibrations  upon  an  impressible  material  placed  on  the 
cylinder.  The  material  selected  for  immediate  use  was  paraffined 
paper  and  the  results  obtained  were  excellent.  The  indentations  on 
the  cylinder  when  rapidly  revolved  caused  a  repetition  of  the  original 
vibrations  to  reach  the  ear  through  a  recorder,  just  as  if  the  machine 
itself  were  speaking.  I  saw  at  once  that  the  problem  of  registering 
human  speech  so  that  it  could  be  repeated  by  mechanical  means  as 
often  as  might  be  desired  was  solved."  Such  was  the  germ  of  the 
invention,  and  the  rest  of  the  problem  was  the  perfection  of  the 
mechanical  means  of  carrying  out  the  idea,  but  it  was  ten  years  be- 
fore Edison  produced  a  machine  that  he  was  satisfied  to  put  upon 
the  market. 

The  Phonograph   in  its  early  form    consisted  of  a   cylinder  with 


562  THE   MARVELS   OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

spiral  grooves  on  the  surface  covered  with  a  layer  of  tin  foil. 
Through  the  center  of  the  cylinder  passed  a  rod  on  which  it 
revolved.  The  inside  of  the  cylinder  and  the  outside  of  the  rod 
were  fitted  with  threads  so  that  as  the  cylinder  was  turned  it  gradu- 
ally moved  toward  one  end  of  the  rod  and  brought  the  whole  length 
of  the  cylinder  opposite  the  mouthpiece.  The  mouthpiece  contained 
a  diaphragm  something  like  that  in  the  telephone  but  had  attached  a 
fine  metal  point.  When  the  mouthpiece  was  spoken  into,  the  tones 
of  the  voice  caused  vibrations  in  the  diaphragm  and  the  point 
attached  made  minute  indentations  on  the  tin  foil  surface  of  the 
cylinder  revolving  underneath  it.  To  reproduce  the  speech  the  proc- 
ess was  reversed,  the  cylinder  returned  to  its  original  position  and 
again  revolved.  As  the  indentations  passed  rapidly  underneath  the 
metal  point  the  diaphragm  was  made  to  vibrate  as  before  and  tones 
similar  to  those  that  had  caused  the  indentations  in  the  first  place 
were  reproduced.  The  tones  of  the  first  phonograph  were  harsh  and 
metallic  in  the  extreme  but  the  most  objectionable  features  are  being 
gradually  removed  or  reduced. 

The  Graphophone,  the  invention  of  Bell  and  Tainter,  first 
patented  in  1886,  covered  a  great  improvement  in  the  phonograph 
record.  In  this  a  cylinder  covered  with  wax  was  substituted  for  the 
tin  foil.  The  point  of  the  diaphragm  cut  a  distinct  groove  .0006  of 
an  inch  deep  instead  of  tracing  a  dotted  spiral  line.  Such  a  cylinder 
was  more  positive  in  its  action  and  more  easily  handled.  A  wax 
cylinder  once  used  can  be  put  in  something  resembling  a  lathe  and  a 
tiny  shaving  just  deep  enough  to  remove  the  groove  of  the  first 
record  turned  off  and  the  cylinder  used  again. 

The  Gramophone,  another  talking  machine,  is  the  invention  of 
Emile  Berliner,  patented  in  1887.  Instead  of  a  wax  cylinder  this 
uses  a  flat  disc  on  which  is  a  sheet  of  zinc  covered  by  a  layer  of  wax 
on  which  a  needle  attached  to  a  diaphragm  traces  a  record  in  a  spiral 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  563 

gradually  approaching  the  center  of  the  plate.  When  the  record  is 
complete,  the  zinc  plate  with  its  wax  covering  is  removed  and  the 
surface  etched  with  acid,  when  an  electrotype  may  be  made  from  it. 
From  the  electrotype  hard  rubber  records  can  be  made  capable  of 
giving  1000  reproductions. 

About  300  patents  have  been  issued  for  talking  machines,  and 
making  records  is  a  well  recognized  business  of  considerable  impor- 
tance. The  recorders  and  reproducers  are  instruments  of  great 
nicety,  using  diaphragms  of  French  glass  as  thin  as  the  leaves  of 
this  book,  and  sapphire  points  of  extreme  hardness  for  the  stylus 
and  the  turning  tool  that  smooths  the  surface  of  the  record  for  a  new 
speech. 

Speaking  machines  range  in  price  from  $5  to  $200,  and  wax 
cylinders  holding  from  200  to  1200  words  cost  from  25  cents  to 
$3.  One  of  the  most  important  parts  of  a  talking  machine  is  the 
motor,  which  must  give  a  uniform  rate  of  speed,  and  a  good  deal  of 
ingenuity  has  been  lavished  on  this  part  of  the  machine.  The  speak- 
ing machine  has  found  a  place  among  home  amusements  but  has  not 
come  into  general  business  use,  probably  because  records  are  not 
made  that  will  suffice  for  more  than  five  or  ten  minutes'  dictation, 
hence  requiring  frequent  changing  and  interruption  that  the  business 
man  does  not  welcome. 

Posterity  is  likely  to  set  a  high  value  upon  the  phonograph  if  it 
can  be  perfected  until  it  will  preserve  a  true  record  of  the  natural 
tones  of  the  human  voice.  What  would  not  the  Present  give  for  true 
records  of  the  Past  that  would  reproduce  for  them  the  eloquence  of 
Pitt,  Burke,  Fox,  Bossuet,  Caesar,  Cicero,  or  Demosthenes,  the  fare- 
well address  of  Washington,  the  Gettysburg  speech  of  Lincoln,  the 
stirring  scenes  of  the  French  Revolution,  or,  more  impressive  than 
all,  that  famous  scene  before  Pilate? 


564  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN   MECHANISM. 

MOVING   PICTURE    MACHINES. 

Moving  picture  machines,  by  whatever  name  known,  are  all  based 
upon  the  principle  of  the  duration  of  visual  impressions.  Leonardo 
da  Vinci  in  the  fifteenth  century  interested  himself  in  the  theory  of 
visual  impressions,  and  the  theory  at  one  time  or  another  has  en- 
gaged the  attention  of  numerous  scientists  no  less  eminent  than 
Herschel  and  Faraday. 

The  duration  of  an  impression  of  light  on  the  retina  of  the  eye 
varies  from  i-io  to  1-50  of  a  second,  being  longest  after  a  short  ex- 
posure to  violet  light  and  shortest  after  exposure  to  intense  yellow 
light.  Hence  if  a  series  of  pictures  of  an  object  in  different  positions 
are  passed  before  the  eye  with  an  interval  not  greater  than  1-50  of  a 
second,  the  impression  of  continuous  motion  is  produced. 

The  Zoetrope,  a  toy  invented  in  1832  by  Plateau,  a  Belgian  phys- 
icist, was  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  family  of  moving  picture  machines. 
Plateau's  studies  of  vision  cost  him  his  eyesight  about  the  middle  of 
his  life,  yet  in  spite  of  this,  through  the  aid  of  members  of  his  family, 
he  was  able  to  conduct  many  experiments  and  contribute  much  to 
our  knowledge  of  how  we  see. 

The  zoetrope  is  a  cylinder  from  8  to  12  inches  wide  and  a  few 
inches  high  with  slits  in  the  upper  half.  Around  the  lower  half  are 
a  series  of  pictures  showing  men  or  animals  in  various  moving  atti- 
tudes. The  cylinder  rests  on  a  base,  upon  which  it  revolves.  Each 
picture,  viewed  through  the  narrow  slits  in  the  top  of  the  cylinder 
as  it  rapidly  revolves,  creates  a  visual  impression,  which,  before  it 
has  time  to  fade  away,  is  succeeded  by  another  until  the  impression 
of  continuity  is  produced  and  the  eye  seems  to  behold  the  animals 
executing  various  motions.  Such  toys  had  poorly  executed  pictures 
made  by  hand,  and  it  was  not  until  the  camera  was  pressed  into 
service  that  lifelike  effects  were  produced. 

Edward  Muybridge.      Horses   in   motion   were   first   successfully 


MEANS   OF   COMMUNICATION.  565 

photographed  in  1872  by  Edward  Muybridge,  who  was  the  first  to 
utilize  sensitized  films  of  gelatin  bromide  of  silver  emulsion  for  the 
purpose  of  taking  pictures  of  animals  in  motion.  He  arranged  a 
series  of  cameras  beside  a  race  track  and  connected  the  shutter  of 
each  with  a  frail  thread  which  broke  when  the  horse  struck  it,  and 
operated  the  shutter,  thus  furnishing  a  series  of  pictures  in  close  suc- 
cession within  a  second  or  two  of  time.  To  better  exhibit  his 
pictures  he  devised  an  instrument  he  called  the  zoopraxiscope,  in 
which  a  glass  disc  about  10  inches  in  diameter  was  employed,  the 
small  pictures  being  mounted  near  its  circumference.  The  disc  was 
made  to  revolve  and  each  picture  in  turn  thrown  on  the  screen  by 
the  aid  of  a  projecting  lantern,  where  they  were  reproduced  with 
striking  effect.  But  there  was  so  much  expense  and  so  many  diffi- 
culties connected  with  the  work  that  it  could  never  become  widely 
used,  although  it  produced  a  profound  sensation  and  was  plainly  the 
forerunner  of  the  kinetoscope,  vitascope,  and  cinematograph.  Among 
artists  Meissonier  of  France  and  Remington  of  America  were  quick 
to  catch  the  hint  from  the  camera  and  reproduce  it  with  their  pencils. 
Although  their  first  productions  excited  a  great  deal  of  criticism, 
closer  observation  proved  them  to  be  correct. 

Kinetoscope.  In  1887  while  Edison  was  working  on  the  phono- 
graph the  idea  occurred  to  him  of  producing  a  machine  that  would 
present  a  moving  picture  of  the  speaker,  and  in  1897  he  successfully 
realized  this  idea  in  the  kinetoscope.  He  employed  instead  of  Muy- 
bridge's  series  of  cameras  a  special  camera  (kinetograph)  to  take  the 
pictures.  He  used  as  a  carrier  for  the  sensitive  film  a  long  transpar- 
ent strip  of  celluloid  i  ^  inches  wide.  The  pictures  are  an  inch 
wide,  a  row  of  perforations  along  each  edge  of  the  strip  taking  up 
the  rest  of  the  space.  "  These  perforations  occur  at  close  and  regu- 
lar intervals,  in  order  to  enable  the  teeth  of  a  locking  device  to  hold 
the  film  steady  for  9-10  of  the  1-46  part  of  a  second,  when  a  shutter 


566  THE   MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

opens  rapidly  and  admits  a  beam  of  light,  causing  an  image  or  phase 
in  the  movement  of  the  subject.  The  film  is  then  jerked  forward  in 
the  remaining  i-io  of  the  1-46  part  of  a  second,  and  held  at  rest 
while  the  shutter  has  again  made  its  round,  admitting  another  circle 
of  light,  and  so  on  until  46  impressions  are  taken  a  second,  or  2760 
a  minute.  This  speed  yields  165,600  pictures  in  an  hour,  an  amount 
amply  sufficient  for  an  evening's  entertainment,  when  unrolled  before 

the  eye In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that 

were  the  spasmodic  motions  added  up  by  themselves,  exclusive  of 
arrests,  on  the  same  principle  that  a  train  record  is  computed  inde- 
pendent of  stoppages,  the  incredible  speed  of  26  miles  an  hour  would 
be  shown." 

After  the  film  has  been  exposed  it  is  developed  and  produces  a 
negative  from  which  a  positive  is  made  by  printing  and  developing 
in  the  usual  manner.  To  use  the  positive  it  is  passed  through  the 
slide  aperture  of  a  stereopticon  fitted  with  a  starting  and  stopping 
device  corresponding  exactly  in  time  with  the  mechanism  which  made 
the  exposures.  The  pictures  can  be  viewed  through  a  stereoscopic 
glass,  a  magnifying  glass,  or  the  image  can  be  projected  life-size  on 
the  screen  in  view  of  an  audience. 

The  Kineto-Phonograph  is  simply  a  kinetoscope  accompanied 
by  the  usual  phonograph  machine  adapted  so  as  to  work  harmoni- 
ously with  it.  The  records  for  the  two  are  taken  simultaneously  and 
are  reproduced  in  such  a  way  that  the  corresponding  scenes  and 
sounds  are  given  out  at  exactly  the  same  time. 

POSTAL    SERVICE. 

The  origin  of  the  postal  service  dates  back  to  the  lines  of  cou- 
riers established  by  rulers  before  the  dawn  of  history,  and  records  are 
being  continually  brought  to  light  to  show  that  those  were  no  mean 
organizations  and  that  a  pretty  fair  system  of  communication  was 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  567 

maintained  at  a  very  early  age  between  Assyria  and  Egypt.  Marco 
Polo  tells  us  that  the  "Great  Khan"  maintained  10,000  post  sta- 
tions and  more  than  300,000  horses  for  the  use  of  his  messengers. 

The  first  letter  post  for  commercial  purposes  seems  to  have  been 
established  by  the  Hanse  towns,  the  "free  cities"  of  northern  Eu- 
rope, early  in  the  twelfth  century,  and  a  century  later  France  had  a 
fairly  efficient  postal  system  established  by  the  University  of  Paris 
and  one  which  lasted  until  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
England  as  early  as  1252  had  royal  messengers,  but  it  was  not  until 
the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  that  the  regular  system  of  posts  was  estab- 
lished in  that  country.  James  I.  in  1609  forbade  all  persons  not 
duly  authorized  from  carrying  and  delivering  letters,  and  this  was 
the  beginning  of  the  government  monopoly  of  letter-carrying  in  Eng- 
land, but  it  was  not  until  1680  that  a  person  in  London  could  com- 
municate by  letter  with  another  residing  in  a  different  part  of  the 
same  city.  In  1/54  a  monthly  mail  went  from  Edinburgh  to  London 
occupying  from  twelve  to  sixteen  days,  and  the  journey  was  both 
trying  and  perilous.  Until  Sir  Rowland  Hill  began  in  1837  his  agita- 
tion for  cheap  postage,  it  cost  in  England  8  cents  to  send  a  letter 
any  distance  less  than  15  miles;  10  cents  for  distances  over  15  and 
under  20  miles;  12  cents,  over  20  and  under  30  miles;  14  cents  over 
30  and  under  50  miles;  16  cents,  over  50  and  under  80  miles;  the 
rates  increasing  with  a  rapidity  that  was  prohibitive.  In  1840  the 
average  number  of  letters  per  person  in  England  was  a  little  more 
than  two  per  year.  In  1893  there  were  delivered  an  average  of  46.6 
to  each  person. 

Canadian  System.  In  Canada  until  the  time  of  the  Confedera- 
tion in  1868  each  province  controlled  its  own  postal  system  and  the 
rates  were  curious,  perplexing,  and  not  well  calculated  to  foster  the 
development  of  the  system,  but  after  the  Confederation  the  rate  was 
reduced  to  three  cents  per  ounce  and  recently  to  two  cents.  For  the 


568  THE   MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

year  ending  June  30,  1893,  there  were  reported  8475  offices,  handling 
222,419,000  pieces  of  mail  matter,  a  high  average  per  capita. 
Canada  joined  the  postal  union  in  1879  and  has  an  excellent  postal 
service. 

In  the  United  States  only  the  most  primitive  methods  at  first  ex- 
isted, but  gradually  a  postal  service  grew  up  and  was  established  be- 
tween the  several  colonies  along  the  coast,  and  in  1672  there  was  "a 
post  to  goe  monthly  from  New  York  to  Boston."  A  Post  Office 
Department  was  organized  soon  after  Washington's  inauguration  in 
1789,  and  Samuel  Osgood  of  Massachusetts  appointed  Postmaster 
General.  To  assist  him  in  the  arduous  performance  of  his  duties  he 
was  allowed  one  clerk  and  found  this  more  than  sufficient,  for  there 
were  only  75  post  offices  and  1875  miles  of  postal  roads  in  the  whole 
United  States.  Such  was  the  humble  beginning  of  a  postal  establish- 
ment that  has  grown  to  be  the  greatest  business  concern  in  the 
world,  for  according  to  the  official  report  for  the  year  ending  June 
30,  1899,  there  were  496,248  miles  of  postal  routes  and  the  mile- 
age  traveled  in  the  course  of  the  year  was  sufficient  to  make  two 
round  trips  to  the  sun.  The  total  number  of  pieces  mailed  during 
the  year  was  6,576^310,000,  weighing  664,286,868  pounds,  to  carry 
which  would  require  33,2 14  freight  cars  forming  a  train  300  miles 
long  and  hauled  by  500  locomotives.  For  the  year  ending  June  30, 
1900,  there  was  collected  at  the  New  York  post  office  $10,905,087. 
As  an  illustration  of  the  growth  of  the  system  and  of  the  country, 
the  receipts  for  the  same  year  at  Minneapolis  were  $663,206,  and  the 
town  was  first  settled  in  1849. 

Postal  Union.  In  October,  1874,  representatives  from  all  the 
states  of  Europe,  the  United  States,  and  Egypt  met  at  Berne, 
Switzerland,  in  response  to  the  invitation  of  Germany,  for  the 
purpose  of  devising  a  system  that  would  give  greater  uniformity  and 
better  service  to  the  postal  organizations  of  the  different  countries. 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  569 

A  system  was  agreed  upon,  a  union  was  organized,  and  a  central 
post  office  established  at  Berne,  under  the  supervision  of  the  Post 
Office  Department  of  Switzerland,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  notice 
of  and  working  out  all  the  problems  of  interest  to  the  organization. 
Such  conventions  are  now  held  every  three  years  and  nearly  all  the 
countries  of  the  world  have  joined  the  union,  which  has  brought 
about  many  desirable  changes,  greatly  increased  postal  facilities, 
tended  to  make  the  countries  better  acquainted,  and  to  knit  the  ties 
of  good  feeling  among  nations. 

Free  Delivery.  England,  France,  and  Germany  have  "  rural 
free  delivery."  Such  a  system  is  possible  in  countries  thickly  popu- 
lated, for  England  contains  50,867  square  miles,  France  204,092 
square  miles,  and  Germany  208,830  square  miles.  Experiments  have 
been  made  in  the  United  States,  and  November  15,  1900,  2614  rural 
free  delivery  routes  had  been  located,  covering  66,842  square  miles, 
divided  among  44  states  and  territories,  and  serving  a  population  of 
1,801,524.  The  service  has  proved  satisfactory  and  the  advantages 
are  so  marked  that  opposition  is  fast  subsiding  and  the  movement  is 
meeting  with  cordial  approval  and  support.  A  farmer  brought  into 
daily  contact  with  the  business  world  has  a  more  accurate  knowledge 
of  ruling  markets  and  varying  prices,  and  the  values  of  such  farms 
are  in  many  cases  considerably  enhanced.  Good  roads  follow  as  a 
natural  sequence,  adding  still  further  to  their  value,  and  the  material 
and  measurable  benefits  are  signal  and  unmistakable. 

Pneumatic  tube  postal  service  was  first  tried  by  Denis  Papin  in 
London  in  1667,  but  his  experiment  was  so  much  in  advance  of  the 
requirements  of  the  service  that  his  scheme  was  not  considered  a 
success.  In  1853  a  practical  system  was  installed  in  London  reach- 
ing from  the  Founders'  Court  to  the  Stock  Exchange,  a  distance  of 
220  yards.  The  first  extensive  system  appeared  in  Berlin  and  was 
put  in  operation  by  Siemens  and  Halske  in  1865.  It  was  57^o  feet 


570  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

long  and  composed  of  a  double  tube,  one  for  sending,  the  other  for 
receiving,  messages,  and  here  the  plan  was  first  adopted  that  makes 
the  system  really  practicable,  for  one  end  of  the  line  was  connected 
by  a  loop  and  the  other  contained  an  air  pump  which  drew  its  supply 
of  air  from  the  receiving  tube  and  pumped  it  into  the  sending  tube, 
producing  a  partial  vacuum  in  one  tube  and  compressing  the  air  in 
the  other,  thus  performing  a  double  duty. 

Berlin  has  at  present  28  miles  of  double  pneumatic  tube,  2.55 
inches  in  diameter.  Paris  has  about  25  miles  of  tube,  with  carriers 
moving  at  the  rate  of  23  miles  an  hour.  London  has  34  miles  of  such 
system  with  tubes  3  inches  in  diameter,  and  Manchester,  Birming- 
ham, Glasgow,  Liverpool,  Dublin,  and  Newcastle  all  employ  this 
system  for  rapid  distribution  of  the  mails. 

America  has  only  about  8  miles  of  pneumatic  postal  tubes.  In 
1893  the  main  post  office  of  Philadelphia  was  connected  by  6-inch 
tubes  with  a  sub-station  on  Chestnut  street.  The  increase  in  size, 
speed,  and  carrying  capacity  made  this  line  several  times  more  effi- 
cient than  any  previous  system. 

New  York  post  office  was  fitted  in  1897  with  a  system  having  8- 
inch  tubes  and  carriers  with  a  speed  of  30  miles  an  hour.  This 
system  in  one  year  saved  76,312  miles  ot  wagon  service  and  reduced 
the  Brooklyn  delivery  to  three  minutes  where  the  wagons  had  con- 
sumed twenty-five  minutes. 

Description  of  Pneumatic  Carriers.  The  carriers  are  hollow  cyl- 
inders of  metal  with  a  packing  ring  at  each  end  which  prevents  the 
air  passing  around  them.  The  air  pressure  is  continuous  and  by 
means  of  clever  devices  the  carriers  are  put  into  and  taken  out  of  the 
tubes  without  interrupting  it.  The  transmitter  can  best  be  described 
as  a  section  sawed  out  of  the  tube  and  hinged  so  that  its  rear  end  can 
be  swung  out  and  at  the  same  time  a  plate  swung  in  to  close  the 
tube,  and  prevent  the  escape  of  air,  the  current  going  through  a 


MEANS    OF   COMMUNICATION.  571 

switch  (by-pass)  which  opens  when  the  transmitter  swings  out.  The 
loaded  carrier  is  pushed  into  the  free  end,  the  section  is  swung  back 
into  place,  the  by-pass  closing  at  the  same  time,  and  the  carrier 
starts  on  its  journey.  All  the  sender  has  to  do  is  to  manipulate 
a  lever  which  controls  the  swinging  apparatus,  and  compressed  air 
does  the  rest.  A  loaded  carrier  traveling  at  a  speed  of  30  miles  an 
hour  has  a  momentum  not  to  be  lightly  trifled  with,  so  a  stopping 
device  is  necessary.  At  the  receiving  station  a  long  section  of  the 
pipe  is  hung  on  trunnions.  The  end  of  this  tube  has  a  valve  set  to 
allow  the  escape  of  air  when  the  pressure  exceeds  that  of  the  regular 
tube  pressure,  and  a  "by-pass"  allows  the  current  of  air  to  pass 
from  the  receiving  tube  to  the  sending  tube.  When  a  carrier  arrives 
at  the  station  it  plunges  into  the  blind  tube  and  its  momentum  com- 
presses the  air  and  sets  in  motion  a  mechanism  which  swings  the 
tube  on  its  trunnions  and  closes  the  end  of  the  line.  The  carrier  is 
stopped  by  the  cushion  of  air  in  the  end  of  the  tube,  and  the  valve 
leaves  just  enough  pressure  to  force  the  carrier  to  the  open  end  of 
the  tube  and  throw  it  out  upon  a  table.  As  soon  as  the  tube  is  de- 
livered of  the  carrier,  a  counterweight  swings  it  back  into  line  and  it 
is  ready  for  another  carrier. 

The  New  and  the  Old.  A  two-cent  stamp  will  carry  a  letter 
from  Maine  to  the  Philippines,  a  journey  that  would  cost  $300  for 
the  fare  of  a  messenger,  and  a  part  of  the  way  would  be  traveled  at 
a  speed  that  would  have  no  charm  for  a  timid  person. 

In  1889,  the  time  of  the  transcontinental  mail  from  New  York  to 
San  Francisco  was  5  days,  8^  hours.  This  was  gradually  reduced 
until  January  I,  1899,  a  new  system  was  inaugurated  which  regularly 
covers  the  3408  miles  in  98^  hours  or  an  average  of  34^2  miles  an 
hour  for  the  whole  distance,  including  all  stops  and  transfers  of  mail 
bags,  the  latter  consuming  considerable  time,  for  in  Chicago  they 
are  carried  across  the  city  in  a  wagon.  The  engines  are  changed 


572  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

eighteen  times,  the  postal  crews  seven  times,  and  the  actual  running 
time  of  the  train  frequently  exceeds  75  miles  an  hour  for  long 
stretches.  Yet  all  this  is  the  work  of  a  single  generation  and  there 
are  men  now  living,  notably  "Buffalo  Bill,"  who  have  helped  carry 
the  mail  on  horseback  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Coast  before  the 
advent  of  the  railroads. 

St.  Joseph  News  (Missouri)  says:  "In  1859  St.  Joseph  was  the 
terminus  of  railroad  communication.  Beyond,  the  stagecoach,  the 
saddle  horse,  and  the  ox  trains  were  the  only  means  of  commerce 
and  communication  with  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Pacific 
Slope. 

"  The  discovery  of  the  gold  fields  had  brought  sudden  importance 
to  California  and  the  demand  for  speedy  communication  was  emphatic 
and  insistent.  A  lobbyist  tried  to  secure  a  contract  for  carrying 
mails  overland  one  year  for  $5,000,000.  William  H.  Russell, 
backed  by  Secretary  of  War  Floyd,  resolved  to  give  the  lobby  a 
cold  shower  bath.  He  offered  to  bet  $200,000  that  he  could  establish 
a  line  from  Sacramento  to  St.  Joseph,  1950  miles,  that  would  cover 
the  distance  in  10  days.  The  bet  was  taken  and  the  8th  of  April 
fixed  as  the  day  of  starting.  Mr.  A.  B.  Miller,  Mr.  Russell's  general 
manager,  purchased  300  of  the  fleetest  horses  he  could  find  in  the 
West  and  employed  125  men,  80  of  them  for  post  riders.  These  he 
selected  with  reference  to  their  light  weight  and  their  known  daring 
courage.  It  was  essential  the  load  should  be  as  light  as  possible ; 
the  lighter  the  man  the  better.  The  horses  were  stationed  from  10 
to  20  miles  apart  and  each  rider  covered  60  miles,  it  being  necessary 
to  make  a  portion  of  the  route  at  the  rate  of  20  miles  an  hour.  Two 
minutes  was  the  schedule  time  for  changing  animals  and  shifting  the 
mails.  Where  there  were  no  dwellings  at  a  proper  distance,  tents 
large  enough  to  hold  one  man  and  two  horses  were  provided. 

"Indians  sometimes   gave  chase  but  their  cayuse   ponies  made 


MEANS    OF    COMMUNICATION.  573 

but  a  poor  showing  in  pursuit  of  Miller's  thoroughbreds,  some  of 
which  could  make  a  single  mile  in  a  minute  and  50  seconds. 

"  Arrangements  being  completed,  a  signal  gun  on  the  steamer  at 
Sacramento  proclaimed  the  meridian  of  April  8,  1860  —  the  hour  for 
starting — when  Border.  Ruffian,  Mr.  Miller's  private  saddle  horse, 
with  Billy  Baker  in  the  saddle,  bounded  away  toward  the  foot-hills 
of  the  Sierra  Nevadas  and  made  his  ride  of  20  miles  in  49  minutes. 

"The  snows  were  deep  in  the  mountains.  One  rider  was  lost 
for  several  hours  in  a  snowstorm,  and  after  the  Salt  Lake  valley  was 
reached  additional  speed  became  necessary  to  reach  St.  Joseph  on 
time.  When  the  rider  struck  the  Platte  at  Julesburg  the  river  was 
up  and  running  rapidly  but  he  plunged  his  horse  into  the  flood,  only 
to  see  him  mire  in  the  quicksand  and  drown.  The  courier  swam  to 
the  opposite  shore  with  mail  bag  in  hand  and  traveled  10  miles  on 
foot  to  the  next  relay. 

"  Johnny  Fry,  a  popular  rider  of  his  day,  was  to  make  the  finish. 
He  had  60  miles  to  ride  with  6  horses  to  do  it.  When  the  mail  was 
turned  over  to  Fry  it  was  one  hour  behind  time.  A  heavy  rain  had 
set  in  and  Fry  had  only  3  hours  and  30  minutes  to  cover  the  course, 
and  $200,000  might  turn  on  a  single  minute.  This  was  the  finish  of 
the  longest  race  for  the  largest  stakes  ever  run  in  America.  At  least 
5000  people  gathered  at  the  finish  and  turned  anxious  eyes  toward 
the  woods  from  which  the  horse  and  its  rider  should  emerge  into  the 
open  country,  one  mile  from  the  finish.  Tick,  tick,  went  the  thou- 
sands of  watches.  The  time  was  nearly  up !  But  nearly  seven 
minutes  remained.  Hark!  A  shout  goes  up  from  the  assembled 
multitude.  'He  comes!  he  comes!'  The  noble  little  mare,  Sylph, 
the  daughter  of  Little  Arthur,  darts  like  an  arrow  from  the  bow  and 
makes  the  run  of  the  last  mile  in  one  minute  and  fifty  seconds,  land- 
ing upon  the  ferry  boat  with  five  minutes  and  a  fraction  to  spare." 


PHOTOGRAPHY  AND   PRINTING. 


Early  History  of  Photography  —  The  Energy  of  the  Sun's  Rays — The  Chemistry  of 
Photography — Photography  of  the  Heavens  —  Photo-Engraving — Half- Tone  Engraving 

—  Roentgen  Rays  —  Crookes  Tubes — Homemade  Apparatus  for  X-ray  Experimentation 

—  Paper   and  its  Early  Substitutes  —  Papyrus  —  Parchment  —  Paper  Making — Transition 
from  Forest  Tree  to  Newspaper  —  The  Art  of  Printing —  Its  Early  History —  The  Evolu- 
tion of  the  Printing  Press  —  Capacity  of  the  Latest  Press —  Type-setting  Machines  —  Color 
Printing—  Linotype — Empire  Type-setting   Machine — Stereotyping  —  Evolution  of   the 
Modern  Typewriter. 

EARLY  History  of  Photography. 
The  photograph  is  the  product 
of  the  last  hundred  years,  and  the  gap 
which  separates  the  first  rude  scrawls 
of  the  primitive  artist  on  the  reindeer's 
bone  from  the  productions  of  the  pen- 
cil of  a  Michael  Angelo,  is  narrower 
and  represents  fewer  difficulties  over- 
come and  problems  solved  than  that 
which  intervenes  between  that  pencil  and  the  half-tone  and  photo- 
graph of  to-day.  The  difference  between  the  work  of  the  savage 
with  his  flint  tool  and  the  artist  with  his  pencil  is  only  in  degree  and 
not  in  kind,  while  the  camera  stands  for  mysteries  solved  and  addi- 
tions to  the  sum  of  human  knowledge  so  far-reaching  in  their  effects 
that  no  man  can  fix  their  boundaries.  The  camera  has  revolutionized 
art  and  made  the  eye  familiar  with  things  that  were  before  invisible. 
It  preserves  for  man  the  features  of  his  friends,  and  the  scenes  of 
his  greatest  happiness.  It  furnishes  the  physician  with  permanent 
pictures  of  the  bacteria  revealed  by  his  microscope,  and  with  it  the 
astronomer  photographs  stars  so  faint  as  to  be  invisible  to  the  eye, 
though  aided  by  the  most  powerful  telescope. 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING.  575 

It  is  now  known  that  the  sun's  rays  have  three  forms  of  energy, 
or  produce  three  effects:  optical,  thermal,  and  chemical.  A  ray 
of  sunshine  passed  through  a  prism  resolves  itself  into  the  well 
known  prismatic  colors:  red,  orange,  yellow,  green,  blue,  indigo, 
violet.  The  heat  rays  are  most  powerful  at  the  red  end  of  the 
spectrum  and  extend  into  the  darkness  beyond  the  range  of  the  eye. 
On  the  other  hand,  red  rays  affect  salts  of  silver  hardly  at  all,  but 
the  violet  end  of  the  spectrum  acts  upon  them  vigorously,  the  most 
energetic  rays  being  in  the  darkness  outside  of  the  violet.  '  The  light 
waves  then  appear  to  occupy  the  middle  of  the  spectrum,  for  at 
each  end,  as  we  have  seen,  are  powerful  rays  invisible  to  the  eye. 

Photography  is  based  primarily  upon  the  power  of  the  sunlight  to 
blacken  the  salts  of  silver.  The  camera  of  to-day  does  not  differ 
greatly  in  essentials  from  the  camera  obscura,  which  has  been  cred- 
ited to  numerous  persons,  from  Roger  Bacon  (12  14-1294)  to  Leonardo 
da  Vinci  (1452-1519)  and  Baptista  Porta  (1538-1615).  The  camera 
obscura  was  often  used  by  landscape  painters  to  throw  a  real  image 
of  a  distant  scene  upon  a  drawing  board  within  a  dark  room.  The 
pencil  of  the  artist  then  reproduced  the  scene.  The  camera  of  to-day 
substitutes  for  the  drawing  board  a  sensitized  film  or  plate,  in  place  of 
the  pencil  employs  the  rays  of  the  sun,  and  thus  equipped,  the  veri- 
est amateur  obtains  results  that  the  greatest  artist  could  not  have 
equaled.  In  1566  the  alchemist  Fabricus  discovered  that  horn  silver 
blackened  on  exposure  to  light,  and  yet  hundreds  of  years  passed 
before  the  relation  between  the  silver  and  the  camera  was  perceived 
and  the  pocket  "kodak"  made  possible. 

Eighteenth  Century  Experiments.  Johann  Schults  of  Halle  in 
1727  tried  to  make  copies  of  written  characters  by  treating  paper 
with  silver  nitrate  and  exposing  it  to  light,  but  his  apparatus  was 
crude  and  his  method  not  successful,  although  his  idea  was  clear  and 
the  light  of  photography  was  apparently  dawning. 


576          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

Carl  Scheele  in  1777  continued  experiments  with  silver  chloride 
and  proved  that  the  blue  and  violet  end  of  the  solar  spectrum  was 
the  most  potent  on  the  salts  of  silver.  Jeremiah  Ritter  of  Silesia 
demonstrated  in  1801  the  existence  of  powerful  though  invisible  rays 
beyond  the  violet  end  of  the  spectrum. 

Sir  Humphry  Davy  in  1802  published  a  brief  paper  on  the 
"  Method  of  copying  paintings  upon  glass  and  of  making  profiles  by 
the  agency  of  light  upon  nitrate  of  silver."  The  merit  of  the  inven- 
tion, as  the  paper  showed,  belonged  exclusively  to  Thomas  Wedge- 
wood,  brother  of  Josiah  Wedgewood,  the  famous  potter,  Davy 
simply  explaining  the  nature  of  the  discovery.  Davy  concluded  by 
saying,  "  Nothing  but  a  method  preventing  the  unshaded  parts  of 
the  delineation  from  being  colored  by  exposure  to  the  day  is  wanting 
to  render  this  process  as  useful  as  it  is  elegant." 

Many  investigators  caught  fleeting  pictures  on  prepared  paper, 
but  when  exposed  to  the  sun's  rays  they  vanished,  for  the  light  that 
produced  also  destroyed.  We  find  the  very  remarkable  statement 
on  doubtful  authority  that  one  Francis  Eginton,  in  the  employ  of 
Boulton  and  Watt,  was  able  to  give  permanency  not  only  to  the  image 
of  the  camera  obscura  but  also  to  its  colors.  Eginton  was  progress- 
ing well  with  the  work  when  the  government  ordered  it  stopped  and 
gave  him  a  pension  of  £20  a  year  on  condition  that  he  never  reveal 
the  secret,  because  if  such  a  process  were  known  the  painters  of  the 
country  would  be  deprived  of  their  means  of  livelihood.  The  mat- 
ter is  said  to  have  been  kept  secret  until  accidentally  discovered  in 
1863,  but  all"  records  of  the  methods  had  been  destroyed  by  the 
government  in  1790,  though  it  is  claimed  that  a  record  of  the 
achievement  and  the  picture  still  exist.* 

The  light  of  photography  is  next  found  shining  upon  Joseph 
Nic£phore  Niepce  about  1814.  Becoming  interested  in  the  study  of 

*  Fortnightly  Review.     Volumes  20-64. 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING. 


577 


lithography,  then  newly  discovered,  he  finally  gave  a  metal  plate  a 
thin  coat  of  a  solution  of  asphalt  and  exposed  the  plate  to  the  action 
of  light  in  a  camera,  when  he  found  those  parts  of  the  plate  acted 
upon  by  the  light  had  become  insoluble  while  the  parts  that  had  been 
in  the  shadow  could  be  washed  away  with  oil  of  lavender  and 
petroleum.  He  next  poured  over  the  plate  a  corrosive  acid  which 
attacked  the  exposed  portion  while  the  asphalt  protected  the  other 
parts  from  its  action.  The  plate  was  then  washed  with  water,  the 
rest  of  the  film  carefully  removed,  and  when  ink  was  pressed  into 
the  lines  made  by  the  acid,  photographic  etching  was  discovered. 
By  1826  he  was  able  to  copy  engravings,  but  his  plate  required  a 
long  exposure  which  unfitted  it  for  ordinary  photography. 

The  Daguerreotype.  Louis  Jacques  Mande  Daguerre,  a  scene 
painter,  was  working  on  the  same  problem  and  in  1829  formed  a  co- 
partnership with  Niepce,  but  unfortu- 
nately the  latter  died  in  1833,  before 
any  complete  success  was  attained. 
Daguerre  used  a  copper  plate  coated 
with  silver  and  carefully  polished.  This 
he  held  in  fumes  of  the  vapor  of  iodine 
and  produced  silver  iodide.  Exposed 
in  the  camera,  a  fine  image  was  taken 
that  defied  all  his  efforts  to  fix.  About 
this  time  his  wife  became  alarmed  and 
consulted  her  family  physician  concern- 
ing her  husband's  sanity.  The  incident 
reminds  one  of  the  papers  said  to  be  on  file  in  a  Baltimore  court  set- 
ting forth  that  the  relatives  of  Morse  desired  his  incarceration  on  the 
ground  that  he  had  asserted  that  it  was  possible  to  communicate  a 
long  message  from  Baltimore  to  Washington  within  one  minute. 
Almost  discouraged,  Daguerre  was  persuaded  to  cease  his  efforts  and 


DAGUERRE. 


578 


THE    MARVELS   OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 


he  locked  up  a  number  of  unsuccessful  plates  in  a  closet  and  rested. 
But  the  subject  was  so  fascinating  that  he  could  not  resist  it.  To 
his  surprise,  when  he  opened  his  closet  door  each  of  his  defective 
plates  had  a  permanent  picture,  not  visible  when  he  set  them  away. 
A  number  of  chemicals  were  present  with  the  plates  and  he  suspected 
them  of  this  occult  influence.  After  a  long  process  of  elimination 
a  cup  of  mercury  was  forced  to  plead  guilty.  The  vapors  of  the 

mercury,  for  mercury  vapor- 
izes at  ordinary  temperature, 
had  been  deposited  on  the 
plates  and  in  some  mysteri- 
ous way  the  part  of  the  silver 
iodide  that  had  been  struck 
by  the  light  had  the  power 
of  holding  mercury  while  it 
was  rejected  by  the  other 
parts,  which  could  be  washed 
away  with  a  solution  of  com- 
mon salt  without  affecting 
the  mercury  tracings.  The 
daguerreotype  had  rewarded 
his  efforts.  The  French  gov- 
ernment bestowed  on  him  a 

THE  FIRST  SUN  PICTURE  OF  THE  HUMAN  FACE,    pension  of  6OOO   francs,    and 
DOROTHY  DRAPER. 


a  pensjon  Q£  4OOO    fnmcs   Qn 

the  son  of  Niepce,  who  had  assisted  Daguerre  in  his  work. 

So  many  improvements  have  been  made  in  photography  that  only 
the  tintype  bears  any  close  resemblance  to  the  daguerreotype.  The 
former  is  made  on  a  thin  iron  plate  covered  with  black  enamel,  to 
protect  the  iron  from  the  corrosive  action  of  the  chemicals  and  to 
furnish  a  black  background.  The  picture  is  really  a  negative  but  so 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING.  579 

thin  that  the  black  background  of  the  plate  shows  through  the  light 
portions  of  it  and  in  reflected  light  causes  it  to  look  like  a  positive. 

Efforts  of  Morse  and  Draper.  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse  had  been 
a  portrait  painter  and  had  tried  unsuccessfully  to  take  captive  the 
fleeting  image  of  the  camera  obscura.  Visiting  Paris  and  hearing  of 
Daguerre,  he  called  on  him  and  invited  him  to  inspect  the  telegraph. 
In  return  Daguerre  showed  him  the  new  process  for  making  pictures 
and  Morse  took  back  to  America  some  of  Daguerre's  materials.  When 
the  pension  was  granted,  Daguerre  sent  Morse  all  the  details  of  the 
process,  and  in  September,  1839,  the  first  daguerreotype  in  America, 
that  of  the  Unitarian  Church  in  New  York  city,  was  taken.  Ama- 
teur photographers  may  be  interested  to  know  that  an  exposure  of 
15  minutes  was  required.  Morse  tried  repeatedly  without  success  to 
take  portraits.  He  called  to  his  aid  Prof.  John  W.  Draper  of  New 
York  University,  at  that  time  the  most  eminent  scientist  in  New 
York,  and  Draper  succeeded,  as  shown  by  the  copy  of  the  first  sun  pic- 
ture of  the  human  face  on  preceding  page.  In  the  first  portraits  the 
sitter  must  have  the  face  dusted  with  white  powder  and  sit  in  a  strong 
sunlight  for  half  an  hour  with  eyes  closed  without  moving  a  muscle. 
Draper  did  away  with  the 
necessity  of  whitening  the 
face  and  reduced  the  time  of 
exposure  to  a  few  minutes. 
Daguerreotypes  were  expen-  f  ^ 
sive  and  in  1851  cost  from 
$1.50  to  $15  according  to 
size  and  could  not  be  copied 
except  by  electro-chemical  methods. 

The  present  system  of  photography  more  nearly  resembles  the 
process  made  public  January  31,  1839,  by  Fox-Talbot,  who  discov- 
ered a  process  by  which  any  number  of  positives  or  proofs  could  be 


580  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

made  from  one  negative.  He  washed  a  sheet  of  fine  paper  with 
potassium  iodide,  dried  it,  washed  it  with  silver  nitrate  solution  and 
a  little  acetic  acid,  and  thus  secured  a  paper  charged  with  silver 
iodide.  Just  before  using,  to  increase  its  sensitiveness,  he  dipped  it 
in  a  mixture  of  silver  nitrate  and  gallic  acid.  He  exposed  the  paper 
in  the  usual  manner  in  the  camera,  "developed"  it  in  gallo-nitrate 
bath,  and  immediately  upon  the  appearance  of  the  picture  plunged  it 
into  pure  water  and  stopped  the  action  of  the  bath.  He  "  fixed"  it 
in  a  bath  of  salt  and  water.  The  negative  was  next  waxed  to  render 
it  more  transparent  and  any  number  of  positive  prints  on  sensitized 
paper  could  be  taken  from  it.  The  glass  plate  was  the  invention  of 
Sir  John  Herschel  in  his  efforts  to  find  something  more  transparent 
than  the  wax  paper.  To  Herschel  is  also  due  the  "hypo"  fixing 
bath. 

The  albumen  process  was  the  next  marked  improvement.  It 
was  invented  by  Niepce  St.  Victor,  a  nephew  of  the  "Columbus  of 
Photography."  He  mixed  the  whites  of  eggs  (albumen)  with  an 
equal  quantity  of  water,  added  a  little  potassium  iodide  and  allowed 
it  to  settle.  On  flowing  the  mixture  over  a  sheet  of  glass  it  gave  a 
thin  sensitized  film.  The  plate  was  then  heated  almost  to  the  boil- 
ing point  of  water,  which  rendered  the  albumen  insoluble,  then 
dipped  in  a  solution  of  silver  nitrate  and  kept  from  the  light.  This 
gave  finer  results  than  the  Fox-Talbot  process. 

Dry  plates  were  brought  about  by  the  efforts  of  numerous  inves- 
tigators to  overcome  the  inconvenience  of  wet  plates.  The  result 
was  reached  by  washing  off  the  excess  of  silver  nitrate  after  the  bath 
in  that  solution  and  brushing  the  surface  of  the  plate  with  some  pre- 
servative and  drying. 

The  collodion  process  was  invented  in  1851  by  Scott  Archer, 
who  acted  upon  the  suggestion  of  Le  Gray  of  Paris  and  substituted  a 
solution  closely  allied  to  gun  cotton  for  the  albumen  of  St.  Victor. 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING.  581 

The  plates  were  used  while  wet.  The  process  was  more  certain  in 
its  results  than  any  previous  one  and  for  25  years  was  the  one  chiefly 
employed.  Dry  plates  were  an  improvement  in  some  ways  over  the 
wet  process  for  it  made  possible  much  out-of-door  work,  but  required 
a  longer  exposure. 

Thet  emulsion  processes  employ  a  viscous  liquid,  usually  gela- 
tin, with  which  the  necessary  chemicals  are  actually  mixed  instead 
of  being  deposited  on  the  surface  as  in  the  old  dry  collodion  plate. 
These  do  not  deteriorate  so  quickly,  can  be  made  very  sensitive,  and 
are  a  great  improvement  over  the  wet  process  with  all  its  parapher- 
nalia of  trays,  baths,  and  bottles.  It  greatly  increased  the  efficiency 
of  the  camera  and  widened  its  sphere,  made  it  applicable  for  use  in 
connection  with  the  telescope  and  the  microscope,  and  rapid  enough 
in  its  working  to  photograph  a  horse  in  motion,  a  cannon  ball  in  its 
flight,  or  a  flash  of  lightning.  Emulsion  films  have  been  produced 
so  sensitive  that  they  are  said  to  work  with  an  exposure  equivalent 
to  1-5000  of  a  second. 

The  roll  film  carried  on  paper  was  patented  in  England  by  A.  J. 
Melhuish  in  1854.  In  1856  films  appeared  in  which  collodion  or 
gelatin  were  substituted  for  paper,  and  such  films  have  now  been 
brought  to  a  high  state  of  perfection  by  Eastman,  Walker  &  Co.  of 
Rochester,  N.  Y.  The  film  has  been  a  boon  to  travelers,  enabling 
them  to  "load"  the  camera  in  daylight  and  reduce  the  bulky,  heavy, 
plate  holding  camera  to  the  folding  pocket  kodak. 

We  may  believe  that  Roger  Bacon  was  the  first  to  describe  the 
camera  about  600  years  ago.  Fabricus  added  his  observations  on 
discovery  of  horn  silver  300  years  after,  but  it  required  300  years 
more  to  put  the  two  together  and  form  them  into  the  pocket  kodak 
where,  according  to  the  advertisement  of  the  manufacturers,  "You 
press  the  button  and  we  do  the  rest." 

How  the  Picture  is  Made.     The  rays  of  light  from  the  object  to 


582  THE    MARVELS   OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

be  photographed  pass  through  a  lens  in  the  front  of  the  camera 
which  throws  them  upon  a  sensitized  plate  or  film  in  the  back  of  the 
box.  Those  rays  coming  from  the  lightest  color  of  the  object  to  be 
photographed  have  the  greatest  actinic  power  and  produce  a  corre- 
sponding effect  upon  the  plate.  The  rays  of  light  from  the  object 
falling  upon  the  plate  have  a  "reducing"  effect  upon  the  salts  of 
silver. 

After  the  exposure  the  plate  is  carefully  protected  from  the  light, 
carried  into  a  dark  room,  and  "  developed."  The  development  of  a 
latent  image  on  a  photographic  plate  traces  back  to  the  mercury  bath 
of  Daguerre.  Developers  continue  the  process  of  reduction  set  up 
by  the  sunlight.  In  a  pyrogallic  bath  the  developer  reduces  the 
silver  nitrate  in  the  film  to  finely  divided  metallic  silver  and  deposits 
it  on  those  parts  of  the  plate  upon  which  light  has  acted  the  more 
forcibly  and  in  proportion  to  that  action.  The  developer  does  not 
affect  the  iodide,  bromide,  and  chloride  (haloids)  of  silver,  and  these 
are  next  dissolved  and  washed  out  in  the  "hypo"  bath,  leaving  an 
image  in  relief  of  the  object  photographed,  in  which  the  light  portions 
appear  as  dark  and  the  dark  ones  as  light,  hence  the  word  "negative." 

The  positives  are  printed  from  the  negatives  by  placing  a  sheet  of 
sensitized  paper  underneath  the  negative  and  exposing  it  to  the  sun- 
light. The  sunlight  acts  more  forcibly  upon  that  part  of  the  paper 
underneath  the  light  portions,  the  darker  portions  protecting  it 
somewhat.  The  print  is  then  removed  and  put  in  a  bath  which 
washes  out  the  salts  of  the  silver  not  acted  upon  by  the  light.  It  is 
then  "  toned  "  and  "  fixed,"  all  these  operations  corresponding  with 
the  "development"  and  "fixing"  of  the  negative. 

The  photography  of  the  heavens  began  with  the  taking  of  the 
picture  of  the  moon  by  Prof.  John  W.  Draper,  March,  1840.  The 
camera,  fitted  to  the  telescope,  has  since  added  enormously  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  astronomer.  Rays  of  light  from  distant  stars 


PHOTOGRAPHY  AND    PRINTING. 


583 


too  faint  to  make  an  impression  on  the  human  eye  leave  a  mark 
upon  a  photographic  plate  exposed  to  them  for  hours.  The  delicacy 
and  extreme  precision  of  instruments  used  for  stellar  photographs 
almost  pass  belief.  For  an  exposure  of  hours,  clock  work  mechan- 
ism must  be  employed,  the  motions  of  the  earth  calculated,  and  the 
whole  so  accurately  timed  as  to  come  within  a  deviation  of  i-iooo 
of  an  inch.  As  mechanicians  became  expert  enough  to  devise  a 
clock  that  would  keep  a  star  image  at  one  fixed  point  on  the  photo- 
graphic plate,  strange 
wonders  of  the  heav- 
ens were  revealed. 
Exposures  have  been 
made  ten  succeeding 
nights  aggregating  25 
hours,  the  star  being 
photographed  as  near 
the  zenith  as  possible 

to   avoid  the  difficul-  CAMERA  FOR  STER*OSCOP'C  WoRK- 

ties  experienced  with  the  refraction  of  light  occurring  near  the  hori- 
zon. What  appear  to  the  eye  through  the  best  telescopes  as  single 
stars  are  often  resolved  by  the  camera  into  double  stars,  the  tails  of 
comets  are  wonderfully  lengthened,  the  spectrums  of  stars  can  be 
photographed,  and  the  variability  of  what  were  supposed  to  be  single 
stars  found  to  be  due  to  twin  stars  revolving  about  and  at  times 
eclipsing  each  other. 

Our  Debt  to  the  Camera.  The  camera  has  achieved  results  as 
remarkable  for  the  physician  as  for  the  astronomer.  The  infinitesimal 
life  revealed  by  the  microscope  has  been  permanently  recorded  by 
the  camera,  and  the  illustrations  of  the  text-books  of  the  patholo- 
gist, the  histologist,  and  the  bacteriologist  show  how  much  medical 
science  owes  to  photography.  Society  protects  itself  against  the 


584  THE    MARVELS   OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

criminal  classes  by  instituting  rogues'  galleries  in  every  important 
city,  and  the  counterfeiter,  who,  by  the  aid  of  photography,  issues  a 
fraudulent  note,  is  by  a  species  of  poetic  justice  brought  to  bay  and 
identified  by  his  photograph  on  file  at  police  headquarters. 

The  camera  is  no  less  valuable  to  the  geologist,  the  botanist,  or 
the  engineer.  A  comparatively  moderate  pressure  on  a  piece  of 
glass  will  show  any  alteration  of  the  refrangibility  of  a  ray  of  polar- 
ized light.  "The  inventor  who  thinks  he  has  devised  a  truss  or  a 
girder  of  new  efficiency  has,  therefore,  only  to  construct  a  model 
in  glass  to  bring  his  plan  to  an  inexpensive  test.  A  beam  of  polar- 
ized light  sent  through  the  glass  will  plainly  show  to  the  eye,  and 
register  in  the  camera,  the  distribution  and  extent  of  the  strain  im- 
posed by  a  moving  load."  * 

Photo-engraving  has  aided  immensely  in  producing  cheaply,  well 
illustrated  magazines.  Potassium  bichromate  has  the  power,  when 
used  in  a  gelatin  emulsion,  of  rendering  the  gelatin  insoluble  after  it 
has  been  acted  upon  by  light.  A  copper  plate  can  be  coated  with 
the  thinnest  possible  film  of  this  emulsion,  exposed  in  a  camera,  those 
portions  not  influenced  by  the  light  washed  away  and  the  exposed 
part  of  the  plate  etched  out  with  acids,  leaving  a  picture  in  relief, 
the  raised  portions  of  which  take  ink  and  act  as  printing  surfaces. 

Half-tone  engraving  has  practically  revolutionized  one  branch  of 
art  and  made  it  possible  to  issue  and  profitably  sell  for  ten  cents  a 
magazine  so  well  illustrated  that  it  could  hardly  have  been  produced 
at  any  price  fifty  years  ago.  In  making  half-tones,  the  photograph 
is  taken  through  two  glass  plates  having  closely  ruled  lines  laid  cross- 
wise on  each  other  and  forming  a  screen.  Screens  on  which  from  80 
to  200  lines  per  inch  are  ruled  are  used ;  the  coarser  ones  for  news- 
paper, the  finer  for  book  and  magazine  work.  The  lines  on  the 
screen  are  filled  with  a  fine  black  substance  which  intercepts  the  light 

*  George  lies,  "  Flame,  Electricity,  and  the  Camera." 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING. 


585 


that  comes  to  the  negative  and  an  image  is  formed  having  innumera- 
ble minute  dots  over  the  surface.  These  dots  form  raised  surfaces 
which  receive  the  ink  and  print  like  an  ordinary  relief  plate,  but  the 
dots  are  so  fine  and  so  close  that  the  suggestions  of  the  mind  come 
to  the  aid  of  the  eye  and  it  accepts  the  picture  as  perfectly  re- 
produced. 

ROENTGEN    X-RAYS. 

Probably  no  other  scientific  discovery  has  attracted  such  univer- 
sal attention  as  that  of  a  "New  Kind  of  Rays,"  announced  by 
Professor  W.  C.  Roentgen  of  Wiirzburg,  January  4,  1896.  The 
Roentgen  rays  are  developed  by  an  elec- 
trical discharge  in  a  high  vacuum.  Geiss- 
ler,  a  physicist  of  Bonn,  about  fifty  years 
ago,  constructed  vacuum  tubes,  which  bear 
his  name,  for  experiments  of  this  kind.  A 
degree  of  exhaustion  of  about  two  hun- 
dredths  of  an  atmosphere  was  used.  A 
"tube"  in  the  sense  here  used  is  any 
closed  glass  vessel  having  two  wires  sealed 
into  its  sides,  which  are  to  be  used  as  the 
electrodes  of  an  electric  circuit,  and  be- 
tween which  the  discharge  is  to  take  place 
in  the  interior  of  the  tube,  which  has  been  exhausted  before  sealing. 
The  electrode  by  which  the  current  enters  the  tube  is  called  the 
anode,  and  the  one  by  which  it  leaves  is  the  cathode.  The  high  tension 
current  required  is  usually  produced  by  an  induction  coil.  Brilliant 
and  beautiful  color  effects  are  produced  when  the  current  passes 
through  tubes  of  various  kinds  of  glass  containing  various  gases. 
Geissler  tubes  are  used  only  for  these  display  purposes. 

Crookes  Tubes.     About  twenty-five  years  ago  William  Crookes 
of  England  cons-tructed  tubes  of  great  variety,  some  very  highly  ex- 


PROF.  W.  C.  ROENTGEN. 


586  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

hausted.  The  phenomena  exhibited  by  these  tubes  were  so  surpris- 
ing and  wonderful  that  they  constituted  a  new  class  of  phenomena. 
Tubes  made  for  repeating  these  experiments  are  called  Crookes 
tubes.  They  may  be  of  cylindrical,  or  spherical,  or  of  odd  and  fan- 
tastic shapes.  They  are  often  exhausted  to  one-millionth  of  an 
atmosphere,  and  in  such  cases  the  phenomena  differ  from  those  of 
ordinary  gases,  as  much  as  those  of  gases  differ  from  liquids,  or  liquids 
from  solids. 

In  a  Geissler  tube,  the  gas  in  the  interior  glows  with  a  colored  light 
and  exhibits  beautiful  stratifications.  As  the  tube  is  exhausted  more 
and  more  the  glow  decreases  in  brilliancy,  and  entirely  ceases  when 
the  exhaustion  is  such  that  only  one-millionth  of  the  original  air  re- 
mains. But  at  this  stage  the  glass  itself  begins  to  emit  light,  and  it 
is  then  that  the  tube  becomes  useful  for  the  purpose  of  generating 
the  Roentgen  rays.  The  striking  peculiarity  of  the  discharge  in  the 
high  vacuum  is  that  the  cathode  is  the  important  electrode. 

The  photographic  part  of  the  operation  is  carried  out  after  the 
usual  manner.  There  seems  to  be  but  little  choice  between  various 
developing  agents.  A  great  amount  of  detail  appears  strongly  dur- 
ing the  development  which  is  lost  in  the  "  fixing"  process,  and  in 
important  surgical  cases  the  surgeon  should  see  the  plate  during 
the  development  in  order  to  obtain  the  full  benefit  of  the  experi- 
ment. Various  developers  and  fixing  agents  have  been  tried  to 
overcome  this  difficulty,  but  without  success. 

Professor  Roentgen,  experimenting  with  a  Crookes  tube,  had 
placed  near  it  a  sheet  of  paper  coated  on  one  side  with  barium- 
platinum  cyanide.  Such  paper  is  a  fluorescent  screen.  He  noticed 
that  when  the  tube  was  so  completely  covered  by  black  paper  that 
its  rays  were  entirely  invisible  to  the  eye,  there  still  passed  through 
it  a  mysterious  energy  that  could  illuminate  his  sheet  of  paper  two 
yards  or  more  away.  Further  experiments  showed  that  these  invis- 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING.  587 

ible  rays  were  capable  of  passing  through  many  substances  opaque  to 
ordinary  light,  just  as  glass,  which  offers  little  resistance  to  light 
waves,  is  opaque  to  electricity.  Professor  Roentgen  continued  his 
experiments  and  found  that  when  his  hand  was  placed  over  the 
screen  the  flesh  was  only  partially  opaque,  the  bones  more  nearly  so, 
and  the  shadow  of  the  skeleton  was  outlined  on  the  paper.  His 
knowledge  of  photography  enabled  him  to  catch  the  fleeting  image 
and  make  public  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  far-reaching  discov- 
eries of  a  decade. 

How  Ordinary  Experiments  may  be  Made.  A  writer  has  said 
persons  need  not  be  deterred  from  experimenting  with  X-rays  be- 
cause of  the  cost  of  a  Crookes  tube,  for  fairly  satisfactory  tubes  can 
be  made  for  a  few  cents  by  which  many  interesting  phenomena  can 
be  studied.  "  A  person  having  access  to  an  electric  lighting  circuit 
can  unscrew  an  ordinary  incandescent  electric  light  globe  from  its 
socket  and  set  it  up  on  a  candlestick  resting  on  a  plate  of  glass  to 
insulate  it.  Next,  cut  a  piece  of  aluminum  foil  about  the  size  of  a 
dollar  and  with  a  little  shellac  fasten  it  smoothly  on  the  large  end  of 
the  globe  and  procure  (or  make)  an  induction  coil  that  will  give  a 
spark  at  least  three  inches  long. 

"The  house  current  can  be  used  to  furnish  the  current  for  the 
primary  of  the  coil.  Connect  one  end  of  the  secondary  with  the 
aluminum  foil  and  the  other  end  with  the  bottom  of  the  globe. 
Then  remove  the  globe  from  the  candlestick  and  place  it  in  the  house 
circuit  for  15  minutes.  The  heat  from  the  incandescent  filament  im- 
proves the  vacuum  in  the  globe.  Next  quickly  place  the  globe  back 
on  the  candlestick  and  start  the  primary  on  the  coil.  In  a  short  time 
the  globe  will  commence  to  produce  X-rays  and  continue  to  do  so  for 
15  to  20  minutes." 

When  the  X-ray  was  discovered  in  1896  it  took  30  minutes  to 
make  a  radiograph.  Now  good  radiographs  can  be  made  in  1-24000 


588  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

of  a  second,  and  in  actual  practice  the  time  is  less  than  half 
a  minute.  Rarely  has  a  new  scientific  discovery  been  so  quickly 
utilized  for  practical  work,  and  it  speaks  volumes  for  the  alertness  of 
the  medical  profession  that  they  have  at  once  and  with  one  accord 
accepted  the  aid  of  Roentgen  X-rays.  With  it  the  beating  of  the 
heart  can  be  watched,  bullets  detected  within  the  skull,  and  it  is  a 
common  thing  to  locate  pieces  of  steel  inside  the  eyeball  within 
sV  of  an  inch.  Broken  bones  are  easily  shown  and  the  surgeon  is 
able  after  he  has  dressed  a  fracture  to  make  a  radiograph  of  it  and 
determine  whether  or  not  it  has  been  successfully  reduced. 

The  X-ray  has  several  practical  uses.  It  will  show  the  presence 
of  flaws  in  large  steel  castings  or  the  difference  between  a  diamond 
and  paste,  and  is  of  great  practical  value  in  detecting  adulterations  of 
numerous  drugs  and  chemicals. 

PAPER. 

Man  traced  his  first  rude  drawings  on  the  walls  of  his  cavern  or 
on  the  bones  of  the  game  that  he  had  slain,  and  numerous  other 
substances  were  used  as  mediums  for  his  communications  before  the 
white  sheet  upon  which  our  daily  papers  are  printed  was  produced. 
The  early  Assyrians  used  clay.  Maspero  says,  in  describing  the  cir- 
cumstances of  a  sale  of  land  in  Assyria  hundreds  of  years  before 
Christ:  "The  scribes  are  provided  with  several  tablets  of  baked 
clay,  still  soft  enough  to  take  an  impression,  yet  hard  enough  for  it 
not  to  be  easily  defaced  or  lost  once  it  has  been  made.  Each  scribe 
takes  one  of  them,  which  he  lays  flat  in  the  palm  of  his  left  hand, 
and  taking  in  his  right  hand  a  triangular  stylus,  its  point  cut  like  a 
bezel,  commences  to  write.  The  marks  obtained  by  gently  pressing 
the  instrument  upon  the  clay  resemble  a  corner,  or  a  metal  nail. 
The  scribe  commences  on  the  left  below  the  upper  edge  of  the  tablet, 
and  soon  covers  both  sides  of  it  with  remarkable  dexterity.  The 


PHOTOGRAPHY  AND    PRINTING.  589 

two  scribes  engaged  by  the  contracting  parties  and  the  one  belong- 
ing to  the  judge  write  the  formulas  at  the  same  time,  for  every 
public  deed  must  be  drawn  out  at  least  three  times.  Formerly 
two  copies  only  were  made,  and  they  remained  in  the  hands  of  the 
two  contracting  parties ;  but  sometimes  it  happened  that  skillful  but 
dishonest  people  altered  the  writing  to  their  own  advantage.  The 
Chaldeans  invented  an  ingenious  method  of  preventing  frauds  of  this 
kind.  The  tablet  once  sealed,  they  covered  it  with  a  second  layer 
of  clay,  upon  which  they  traced  an  exact  copy  of  the  original  deed. 
The  latter  became  inaccessible  to  the  forgers,  and  if  a  dispute  arose 
and  some  alteration  was  suspected  in  the  visible  text,  the  case  tablet 
was  broken  before  witnesses,  and  the  deed  was  verified  by  the  edi- 
tion preserved  inside."* 

From  such  clay  tablets  their  libraries  were  formed.  "  The  books 
of  baked  earth  are  inconvenient  to  hold,  heavy  to  handle,  the  char- 
acters are  not  clearly  defined  against  the  yellow  color  of  the  clay ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  a  work  cut  upon  brick  and  incorporated  with 
it,  incurs  less  danger  than  a  work  written  in  ink  upon  rolls  of  papy- 
rus. Fire  cannot  hurt  it,  water  cannot  injure  it  for  a  long  time,  and 
if  it  is  broken  the  pieces  are  still  good ;  provided  they  are  not  re- 
duced to  powder,  they  can  generally  be  readjusted  and  the  text  de- 
ciphered, with  the  exception  of  a  few  letters  or  some  words  of  a 
phrase.  The  inscriptions  found  in  the  foundations  of  the  most 
ancient  temples,  several  of  which  are  twenty  or  thirty  centuries  old, 
are,  as  a  rule,  clear  and  legible,  as  though  they  had  just  left  the 
hands  of  the  scribe  who  traced  them  and  the  potter  who  baked  them. 
The  hymns,  magic  incantations,  lists  of  kings,  annals,  hymns  com- 
posed almost  at  the  commencement  of  history,  thousands  of  years 
before  the  Assyrian  empire,  although  exposed  to  the  accidents  of 
twenty  conquests,  to  the  destroying  fury  of  man  and  the  assaults  of 

G.  Maspero,  "  Life  in  Ancient  Assyria." 


590  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN   MECHANISM. 

time,  have  yet  resisted  them  all,  and  have  come  down  to  us  intact ; 
this  would  certainly  not  have  been  the  case  had  their  authors  con- 
fided them  to  the  papyrus,  like  the  Egyptian  scribes."* 

The  papyrus  used  by  the  ancient  Egyptians  is  responsible  for 
many  words  in  our  language.  The  word  "  paper"  is  derived  from 
it,  and  from  the  Greek  name  of  the  word  "  byblos  "  we  get  our  word 
"bible."  The  Romans  called  papyrus  "  charta  "  or  "  carta,"  from 
which  are  derived  the  English  words  "chart"  and  "card."  Papy- 
rus continued  in  use  so  long  that  the  official  papers  of  the  popes  were 
written  on  it  until  the  twelfth  century. 

The  Ebers  papyrus,  one  of  the  oldest  authentic  books,  is  a  trea- 
tise on  medicine  written  during  the  reign  of  Amenophis  I.,  probably 
in  the  sixteenth  century  B.  C.  The  roll  is  79  feet  long.  Its  pages 
are  numbered  consecutively,  and  in  the  text  are  found  crosses  and 
asterisks  referring  to  footnotes. 

The  secret  of  manufacturing  papyrus  was  guarded  jealously  in 
Egypt.  Under  the  rule  of  Alexander  the  Great  it  became  one  of 
the  chief  exports,  furnished  the  writing  material  for  the  world,  mul- 
tiplied the  making  of  books,  and  gave  a  great  impetus  to  learning. 

Parchment  is  said  to  have  been  invented  because  Attalus,  a  king 
of  Asia  Minor,  was  a  great  student  and  collected  a  library  of  over 
200,000  volumes.  Ptolemy  Philometer,  king  of  Egypt,  became  jeal- 
ous of  the  library  of  Attalus,  which  he  knew  depended  upon  Egyptian 
papyrus  for  additions  to  it,  so  he  issued  an  edict  forbidding  the 
export  of  papyrus.  Attalus,  under  the  spur  of  necessity,  finally 
made  a  sort  of  paper  out  of  sheepskin  and  from  improvements  in  the 
process  parchment  was  developed. 

Papyrus,  an  African  marsh  plant  growing  in  sluggish  water,  is  a 
large  reed.  The  different  parts  had  various  uses;  the  roots  being 
used  for  fuel,  the  inside  of  the  stalk  for  food,  and  other  portions 

*G.  Maspero,  "  Life  in  Ancient  Assyria." 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING.  59! 

made  into  mats,  baskets,  and  woven  fabrics.  In  paper  making,  a 
section  of  the  stem  as  long  as  the  width  of  the  paper  to  be  made  was 
unrolled  and  separated  into  its  layers.  The  edges  of  the  layers  were 
placed  together  and,  possessing  a  natural  glue-like  quality,  adhered 
under  pressure.  When  one  layer  had  been  formed,  a  second  layer 
with  fibers  crossing  the  first  at  right  angles  was  laid.  By  attaching 
the  ends  of  the  sheets  together,  a  roll  of  any  length  could  be  made. 
The  rough  edges  were  trimmed  and  the  whole  beaten  with  a  mallet 
until  the  desired  degree  of  thinness  and  smoothness  had  been  reached, 
when  it  was  placed  under  a  press  to  drive  out  the  water  and  give  an 
even  surface.  The  operation  was  completed  by  drying  in  the  sun. 
The  perishable  nature  of  papyrus,  on  which  the  records  of  ancient 
Egypt  were  written,  has  rendered  the  work  of  the  archaeologist  more 
difficult. 

Substitutes  for  Papyrus  and  Parchment.  When  the  demand  for 
writing  material  became  so  great  that  papyrus  and  parchment  could 
not  supply  it,  many  other  substitutes  were  tried.  In  the  British 
Patent  Office  there  are  hundreds  of  patents  for  materials  for  paper 
making,  among  which  may  be  found  the  following:  Rags,  old  paper, 
cotton,  flax,  hemp,  wool,  jute,  aloe,  banana,  bean  stalk,  cocoanut 
fiber,  clover,  hay,  heath,  hops,  husks  of  grain,  leaves,  maize,  sugar 
cane,  moss,  nettles,  straw,  seaweed,  thistles,  silk,  fur,  hair,  leather, 
asbestos,  and  frog  spawn.  An  old  act  of  the  British  Parliament  re- 
quired the  dead  to  be  buried  in  woolen  clothing  to  stimulate  the 
woolen  industry  and  save  linen  for  paper  making.  The  Massachu- 
setts General  Court  in  1776  required  the  Committee  of  Safety  in  each 
town  to  appoint  an  officer  to  collect  rags.  Such  events  plainly  show 
the  condition  of  paper  making  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

The  Chinese,  as  usual,  are  credited  with  having  made  paper  at  a 
remote  age,  employing  for  the  purpose  the  inner  bark  of  the  mulberry 


592          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM 

tree,  rye  straw,  and  rags,  reduced  to  a  pulp.  From  them  the  dis- 
covery passed  to  the  Hindoos,  Persians,  the  Arabs,  and  the  Moors, 
who  carried  the  art  into  Spain,  whence  it  gradually  spread  to  other 
European  countries. 

Roll  Paper.  A  Frenchman,  Louis  Roberts,  was  able  about  1799 
to  make  a  continuous  roll  of  paper  and  in  recognition  of  his  discovery 
the  French  government  bestowed  on  him  a.  prize  of  8000  francs. 
The  Fourdrinier  brothers  of  England  took  up  the  idea  and  further 
developed  it  and  gave  their  name  to  the  machine  that  made  the  pro- 
duction of  paper  in  large  quantities  possible. 

Paper  made  from  Rags.  If  we  trace  the  course  of  a  bale  of  rags 
on  its  way  through  the  paper  mill  until  it  appears  as  finished  paper, 
we  shall  find  it  is  emptied  into  a  *  'thrasher,"  the  inner  surface  of 
which  is  lined  with  spikes,  and  containing  a  drum  armed  with  similar 
spikes.  Here  nearly  all  the  dust  is  shaken  out  of  the  rags  and  they 
are  passed  to  the  sorting  room,  where  all  foreign  substances  are 
removed.  The  rags  are  sorted  according  to  quality  and  are  fed  into 
the  "cutter,"  which  reduces  them  to,  bits,  whence  they  go  to  the 
"  devil,"  to  remove  any  lingering  dust.  They  are  then  taken  up  by 
a  belt,  which  discharges  them  into  "boilers"  containing  a  solution 
of  mixed  lime  and  soda.  Here  the  rags  are  continuously  dissolved, 
boiled,  and  leached  until,  when  the  boiler  is  stopped  and  opened, 
"their  disposition  is  softened  by  trouble  and  their  countenance 
blanched  by  fear."  The  pulpy  mass  is  then  run  through  the  "en- 
gines," machines  which  completely  pulpify  and  wash  it  until  it  is  fit 
for  paper  making,  when  it  is  discharged  into  a  flow-box  whence  it 
issues  in  a  thin  stream  on  to  an  endless  belt  of  wire  cloth  running 
over  numerous  rollers.  The  belts  have  two  rubber  bands  on  the 
edges  to  keep  the  paper  from  flowing  out  at  the  sides  and  the 
floating  fibers  are  made  to  interweave  or  unite  by  continued  shaking 
or  lateral  motion  given  to  the  belt,  which  tends  to  interlace  the  fibers 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING.  593 

and  get  rid  of  some  of  the  water,  and  as  the  water  is  removed  the 
belt  passes  under  rollers  which  still  further  compress  the  fiber  and 
deliver  it  to  a  felt  belt  where  more  of  the  water  is  pressed  out.  It  is 
handled  with  the  utmost  delicacy,  passed  between  numerous  rollers, 
and  is  soon  able  to  sustain  its  own  weight.  It  passes  between  hol- 
low rollers  heated  by  steam,  which  press  it,  finish  and  dry  it. 

Wood  Pulp.  Whoever  holds  in  his  hand  the  daily  paper  of  any 
great  city,  probably  holds  what  was  once  enough  wood  to  make 
a  club  of  good  size.  Wood  pulp  or  wood  fiber  is  now  one  of 
the  most  important  paper-making  materials.  Wood  pulp  is  pro- 
duced by  mechanical  means;  wood  fiber  by  chemical  treatment. 
To  obtain  the  pulp,  the  bark  and  knots  are  removed  and  the  wood, 
cut  into  suitable  length,  is  fed  into  a  grinding  machine,  where  a  huge 
grindstone  tears  the  wood  to  bits  and  the  fiber,  mixed  with  water,  is 
carried  away  on  a  wire  screen,  gathered,  partly  dried,  and  shipped  to 
paper  mills,  where  it  undergoes  the  usual  processes  of  "  beating,"  etc. 
Wood  pulp  can  be  made  directly  into  wood  pulp  board,  but  for  thin 
paper  or  where  strength  is  required  it  must  be  mixed  with  something 
having  a  longer  fiber.  It  can  be  produced  very  cheaply. 

Wood  fiber,  or  chemical  fiber,  is  produced  by  two  methods :  the 
alkali  or  soda,  and  the  acid  processes.  In  either  case  the  wood  runs 
through  machines  which  cut  it  into  fine  chips,  whence  it  is  carried  to 
digesters  (boilers)  containing  chemical  solutions  to  extract  the  gum. 
Here  it  is  subjected  to  considerable  steam  pressure  and  is  cooked  from 
8  to  72  hours,  the  alkali  or  soda  process  being  the  quicker. 

In  the  alkali  process,  caustic  soda  is  used  and  the  cooking  kept  up 
in  the  digester  under  a  steam  pressure  of  90  to  100  pounds  from  8 
to  10  hours.  The  caustic  soda  removes  the  gums  and  resins  and 
leaves  a  fiber  which  when  washed  and  bleached  is  almost  pure  cel- 
lulose, resembling  cotton  and  having  a  fair  degree  of  strength. 

In  the   acid   process  the  prepared  wood   is  boiled  in  a  solution  of 


594  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN   MECHANISM. 

bisulphate  of  lime,  which  is  so  corrosive  that  the  digesters  have  to 
be  lined  with  lead,  glazed  bricks,  or  some  other  acid-resisting  coating 
to  protect  the  steel  shell  of  the  boiler.  Under  a  high  pressure  about 
16  hours  of  cooking  will  suffice;  with  the  lower  pressures  the  process 
may  occupy  three  days  and  the  resulting  fiber  is  light  brown,  per- 
haps with  a  pinkish  tinge  and  sometimes  harsh,  but  usually  nearly 
white.  When  cooked  and  bleached  the  fiber  is  soft,  of  good  color, 
and  strong. 

Paper  making  has  increased  enormously  within  the  past  decade, 
due  largely  to  the  development  of  the  wood  pulp  industry,  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  paper  now  produced  is  manufactured  from  wood. 
Germany  apparently  holds  the  record  for  quick  work.  It  is  said  that 
the  trees  from  which  the  wood  pulp  was  made  were  standing  in  the 
forest  at  7.35  A.  M.,  and  cut,  delivered  at  the  paper  mill,  made  into 
paper,  delivered  at  the  printing  office,  and  appeared  as  printed  sheets 
containing  the  news  of  the  day  at  10  A.  M.  The  Philadelphia  Record 
made  a  trial  in  1891  and  issued  a  paper  within  22  hours  from  the 
time  the  trees  were  cut.  The  performance  is  marvelous  enough  that 
in  a  few  hours  converts  a  forest  tree  into  a  black  and  white  sheet 
covered  with  the  news  of  the  world,  containing  perhaps  a  record  of 
events  that  transpired  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  world  while  the 
woodcutter's  ax  was  eating  its  way  to  the  heart  of  the  tree,  for  such 
news  can  be  flashed  by  cable  faster  than  a  nerve  can  convey  the  sense 
of  pain,  and,  if  received  a  few  minutes  before  going  to  press,  arrives 
in  ample  time,  a  strange  ending  for  perhaps  one  hundred  years  of 
quiet  forest  growth. 

PRINTING. 

The  sextuple  printing  press,  capable  of  turning  out  more  than  a 
thousand  papers  a  minute,  is  a  splendid  tribute  to  the  constructive 
imagination  that  has  raised  man  from  the  depths  of  barbarism.  The 


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PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING.  595 

art  of  writing  dates  back  to  a  very  early  age.  A  description  of  the 
Babylonian  expedition  to  Nippur  says,  "  Writing  on  clay  tablets  was 
practiced  in  Babylonia  long  before  the  time  of  Lugal-zaggisi,  it  may 
be  as  early  as  5000  or  even  6000  years  B.  C."* 

The  Assyrians,  as  early  as  Sargon  (3800  B.  C.),  were  using  a  rude 
form  of  type  to  impress  characters  on  bricks  used  for  temples.  Later 
small  cylinders,  finely  engraved,  were  used  for  seals,  and,  when  rolled 
over  a  plastic  clay  tablet,  left  their  impress  there,  the  first  rude  pro- 
totype of  the  cylinder  press. 

The  Chinese  were  printing  from  type  as  early  as  50  B.  C.,  but  their 
language  is  not  well  adapted  to  the  use  of  movable  type,  for  their 
words  cannot  be  resolved  into  separate  elements  like  the  alphabet 
of  Western  nations.  The  Greeks  and  Romans  were  early  acquainted 
with  engraved  dies  and  stamping  on  metal. 

About  the  last  of  the  twelfth  or  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  wood  engraving  appeared  in  Europe.  The  method  was  to 
engrave  a  page  of  a  book  on  a  block  and  print  from  it.  Separate 
letters  were  sometimes  engraved,  especially  initial  letters  and 
pictures,  and  books  are  in  existence  having  such  initial  letters  and 
pictures  printed  while  the  body  of  the  text  is  in  handwriting.  But 
just  as  America  was  named  after  a  man  who  had  more  to  do  with 
talking  about  it  than  discovering  it,  or  as  others  prominently  con- 
nected with  certain  projects  have  become  in  the  popular  mind  so 
identified  with  them  as  to  be  deemed  the  originators  or  inventors 
thereof,  so  the  name  of  Gutenberg  has  become  associated  with  the 
art  of  printing  with  movable  type. 

Gutenberg's  Press.  The  first  book  printed  by  Gutenberg  from 
movable  type  wascompleted  abouttheyear  1450,  and  a  simpler  method 
can  scarcely  be  imagined.  His  printing  press  consisted  of  two  upright 
timbers,  with  crosspieces  of  wood  to  stay  them  together  at  the  top  and 

*John  Punnett  Peters.  "Nippur." 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

bottom,  with  intermediate  cross  timbers,  one  supporting  the  flat  bed 
on  which  the  type  was  placed,  while  through  another  the  wooden 
screw  passed,  the  lower  point  resting  on  the  center  of  the  wooden 
"  platen,"  which  was  thus  screwed  down  upon  the  type.  After 
inking  the  form  with  a  ball  of  leather  stuffed  with  wool,  the  printer 
spread  the  paper  over  it,  laying  a  piece  of  blanket  upon  the  paper  to 
soften  the  impression  of  the  platen  and  remove  inequalities. 


OLD  WOODEN  FRAME  ADAMS  BOOK  PRESS. 

Such  was  the  press  of  Gutenberg,  using  the  familiar  mechanical 
principle  found  in  the  old  cheese  and  linen  presses  ordinarily  seen  in 
the  houses  of  mediaeval  times.  Were  Gutenberg  to  print  his  Bible 
to-day,  he  would  find  virtually  the  same  type  ready  for  his  purpose  as 
that  made  by  him,  but  he  would  be  bewildered  in  the  maze  of  print- 
ing machinery. 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING.  597 

The  simple  form  of  wooden  press,  worked  with  a  screw  by  means 
of  a  movable  bar,  continued  in  use  until  the  early  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  without  any  material  change.  William  Jensen  Blaew, 
a  printer  of  Amsterdam,  about  1620,  passed  the  spindle  of  the  screw 
through  a  square  block  guided  in  a  wooden  frame,  and  from  this 
block  the  platen  was  suspended  by  wire  or  cords,  the  block  or  box 
preventing  any  twist  in  the  platen  and  insuring  a  more  equal  motion 
to  the  screw.  He  also  devised  rollers  for  moving  in  and  out  the  bed, 
and  a  hand  lever  for  turning  the  screw.  Blaew's  press  was  used  in 
England  and  throughout  the  continent,  being  substantially  the  same 
as  that  Benjamin  Franklin  worked  upon  as  a  journeyman  in  London 
early  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

About  the  year  1798,  the  Earl  of  Stanhope  made  a  press  with  a 
cast  iron  frame.  He  also  added  a  combination  of  levers  which  ena- 
bled the  pressman  to  give  power  to  the  impression,  with  less  expendi- 
ture of  energy.  The  presses  were  heavy  and  cumbersome  but  the 
combination  of  levers  came  into  general  use. 

The  "  Columbian "  Press.  George  Clymer,  of  Philadelphia, 
about  1816  devised  an  iron  machine  entirely  dispensing  with  screws. 
His  invention,  introduced  to  some  extent  in  England,  was  known  as 
the  "Columbian"  press.  In  1822  an  American,  Peter  Smith,  intro- 
duced a  toggle  joint  in  place  of  the  levers  used  on  the  "  Columbian" 
press,  but  the  greatest  improvement  of  this  period  was  made  by 
Samuel  Rust  of  New  York,  who  devised  the  "  Washington  "  press, 
which  in  principle  and  construction  has  never  been  surpassed  by  any 
hand  printing  press.  Its  bed  slides  on  a  track  and  is  run  in  and  out 
from  under  the  platen,  by  turning  a  crank  which  has  belts  attached 
to  a  pulley  upon  its  shaft.  The  impression  of  the  platen  is  given  by 
means  of  a  bent  lever  acting  on  a  toggle  joint,  and  the  platen  is  lifted 
by  springs  on  either  side.  Attached  to  the  bed,  is  a  "tympan" 
frame  covered  with  cloth  and  standing  inclined  to  receive  the  sheet 


598  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

to  be  printed.  Another  frame  called  the  "frisket"  is  attached  to 
the  tympan  and  covered  with  a  sheet  of  paper,  having  the  parts  that 
would  be  printed  upon  cut  away,  so  as  to  prevent  the  "  chase"  and 
11  furniture "  from  blacking  or  soiling  the  sheet.  The  frisket  is 
turned  down  over  the  sheet  and  tympan,  and  all  are  folded  down 
when  the  impression  is  taken.  Automatic  ink  rollers  were  -attached 
to  this  machine,  operated  by  a  weight  raised  by  the  pull  of  the  press- 
man, the  descent  of  the  weight  drawing  the  roller  over  the  type  and 
returning  it  to  the  inking  table  while  the  pressman  placed  another 
sheet  upon  the  tympan.  Later  improvements  in  the  inking  appara- 
tus were  made  by  which  the  distribution  of  the  ink  on  the  rollers  was 
effected  by  means  of  steam  power.  The  bed  and  platen  system  of 
printing,  up  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  was  the  favorite 
method  of  printing  fine  books  and  cuts. 

The  first  "  power"  or  steam  press  was  made  by  Daniel  Tread- 
well  in  1822;  it  was  later  improved  by  Isaac  Adams  of  Boston 
in  1830  and  by  Otis  Tufts  of  the  same  place  in  1834.  One  thousand 
sheets  per  hour  is  the  maximum  speed  of  the  largest  sizes  of  this 
type  of  press. 

Flat  Bed  Cylinder  Press.  The  credit  of  actually  introducing 
into  use  the  flat  bed  cylinder  press  is  due  to  a  Saxon  named 
Friedrich  Koenig,  who  visited  England  in  1809,  and  through  the 
assistance  of  Thomas  Bensley,  a  printer  in  London,  devised  a 
machine  which  in  1812-1813  was  used  by  him  in  printing,  among 
other  publications,  a  part  of  Clarkson's  "  Life  of  William  Penn." 
He  also  devised  what  has  proved,  even  to  this  day,  to  be  the  best 
reciprocating  motion  of  the  type  bed.  In  1814  Koenig  patented  a 
continuously  revolving  cylinder  press.  The  part  of  the  periphery  of 
the  cylinder  not  used  for  giving  the  impression  is  slightly  reduced  in 
diameter  so  as  to  allow  the  form  to  return  under  it  freely  after  giving 
an  impression.  He  showed  designs  adapting  it  for  use  as  a  single 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING.  599 

cylinder  press  and  also  a  two-cylinder  press,  both  for  printing  one 
side  of  the  paper  at  a  time ;  likewise  a  two-cylinder  press  for  print- 
ing both  sides  of  the  paper  at  one  operation.  This  press  is  termed 
the  "  perfecting  "  press,  one  of  which  was  placed  in  the  office  of  the 
London  Times  in  1814  and  which  printed  one  side  of  the  paper  only, 
at  the  rate  of  800  sheets  per  hour. 

The  first  cylinder  press  used  in  the  United  States  was  made  by 
Hoe  and  Co.  It  was  of  the  pattern  known  as  the  "Single  Large 
Cylinder,"  the  whole  circumference  of  the  cylinder  representing  the 
total  travel  of  the  bed,  backward  and  forward,  the  cylinder  mak- 
ing one  revolution  for  each  impression  in  printing  and  never  stop- 
ping. 

Stop  Cylinder  Press.  The  press  of  the  present  day  upon 
which  the  finest  letter  press  and  woodcut  work  is  turned  off  was 
devised  and  patented  by  a  Frenchman  named  Dutartre  in  1852,  and 
is  known  as  the  "  Stop  Cylinder."  The  type  is  fastened  to  an  iron 
bed,  which  moves  back  and  forth  upon  friction  rollers  of  steel,  the 
bed  being  driven  by  a  simple  crank  motion,  stopping  or  starting  it 
without  noise  or  jar.  All  the  wearing  parts  are  made  of  finely  tem- 
pered steel.  The  cylinder  is  stopped  and  started  by  a  cam  motion 
pending  the  backward  travel  of  the  bed,  and  during  the  interval  of 
rest  the  sheet  is  fed  down  against  the  guides,  and  the  grippers  closed 
upon  it  before  the  cylinder  starts,  thus  insuring  the  utmost  accuracy 
of  register.  After  the  impression  the  sheet  is  transferred  to  a 
skeleton  cylinder,  also  containing  grippers,  which  receives  and  de- 
livers it  over  fine  cords  upon  the  sheet  flyer,  which  in  turn  deposits  it 
upon  the  table.  The  distribution  of  the  ink  is  effected  partially  by  a 
vibrating  polished  steel  cylinder,  and  partly  upon  a  flat  table  at  the 
end  of  the  traveling  bed,  the  number  of  inking  rollers  varying  from 
four  to  six.  This  is  considered  the  most  perfect  flat  bed  cylinder 
printing  machine  that  has  ever  been  devised.  It  is  made  in  various 


6oo 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


sizes  and  is  capable  of  one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred  impressions 
per  hour.  The  very  finest  engravings  or  cut  work  is  printed  upon  it 
at  a  speed  of  700  impressions  per  hour.  This  press  is  used  chiefly 
for  book  work. 

Hoe  Type  Revolving  Machine.  To  meet  the  increased  re- 
quirements of  newspapers  in  America  there  resulted  the  construction 
of  a  press  known  as  the  "Hoe  Type  Revolving  Machine."  The 


8-CvLiNDER  REVOLVING  HOE  PRESS. 

distinguishing  feature  of  this  press  is  an  apparatus  for  fastening  the 
forms  of  type  to  the  central  cylinder,  placed  in  a  horizontal  position. 
This  is  accomplished  by  the  construction  of  cast  iron  beds,  one  for 
each  page  of  the  newspaper.  The  column  rules  are  V-shaped;  i.  e., 
tapering  toward  the  feet  of  the  type.  The  type  on  these  beds  can  be 
held  firmly  in  position,  the  surface  made  to  form  a  true  circle  and 
the  cylinder  revolved  at  any  speed  required  without  danger  of  the 
type  falling  out.  Around  this  central  type  cylinder,  from  four  to 
ten  impression  cylinders  are  grouped  according  to  the  output  re- 
quired. The  sheets  are  fed  by  boys,  and  taken  from  the  feed  board 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING.  6oi 

by  automatic  grippers.  Composition  rollers,  placed  between  each 
of  the  impression  cylinders,  ink  the  type  cylinder.  The  first  of  these 
presses  had  only  four  impression  cylinders,  and  the  running  speed 
obtained  was  about  2000  sheets  to  each  feeder,  per  hour,  thus  giving 
with  a  four-cylinder  machine  a  running  capacity  of  8000  papers  per 
hour,  printed  on  one  side,  but  in  the  case  of  a  ten-cylinder  machine, 
an  aggregate  of  20,000  papers  per  hour.  Newspaper  printing  was 
revolutionized ;  journals,  before  limited  by  their  inability  to  furnish 
papers,  rapidly  increased  their  issue  and  many  new  ones  started. 
The  new  press  was  adopted  not  only  on  the  American  continent  but 
also  in  Europe. 

Meanwhile  stereotyping  was  keeping  pace  with  the  development 
of  the  press,  and  soon  stereotype  plates  were  cast  on  curves  to 
fit  the  cylinders  and  were  used  in  place  of  type  forms.  This  allowed 
the  duplication  of  the  forms,  the  running  of  several  machines  at  a 
time,  and  resulted  in  turning  out  papers  with  extra  rapidity. 

Improvements  in  Paper  and  Folding.  For  four  hundred  years 
after  Gutenberg  little  improvement  had  been  made,  but  now  new 
methods  and  inventions  were  introduced  with  such  rapidity  that  they 
can  only  be  mentioned  and  not  described.  The  profitable  produc- 
tion of  straw  and  wood  fiber  added  a  wonderful  impetus  to  printing, 
and  presses  were  devised  to  use  with  still  greater  speed  the  increased 
supply  of  raw  material.  A  folding  machine  was  patented  in  1875  by 
Stephen  D.  Tucker  that  folded  the  newspapers  as  fast  as  they  came 
from  the  press.  Constant  improvements  in  presses  were  made  and  when 
the  "  quadruple  newspaper  press"  was  constructed  and  placed  in  the 
office  of  the  New  York  World  in  1887  it  was  thought  that  the  limit 
of  printing  capacity  in  one  machine  had  been  reached,  for  it  printed 
48,000  8-page  papers  an  hour,  cut  the  top,  and  pasted  and  folded  them 
.ready  to  be  mailed.  But  the  demand  for  printing  seems  to  increase 
with  the  supply,  and  two  years  later  a  "  sextuple  "  press  was  turned 


602  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

out  for  the  New  York  Herald,  which  that  paper  pronounces  nothing 
less  than  a  miracle  of  mechanism.  It  is  fed  from  three  rolls  of  paper 
and  can  print  and  fold  90,000  4-page  Heralds  in  an  hour,  each  copy 
containing  an  epitome  of  the  news  of  the  world  for  the  preceding  24 
hours. 

The  "octuple"  press  succeeded  that,  which  prints  96,0004,  6, 
or  8-page  papers  an  hour,  or  at  the  rate  of  1600  a  minute,  and  cuts, 
pastes,  folds,  and  counts  them  as  fast  as  printed.  Running  at  its 
highest  speed  —  so  fast  that  only  one  fifth  of  a  second  is  required  to 
print  a  page  — this  press  will  consume  in  an  hour  a  roll  of  ordinary 
newspaper  50  miles  in  length.  In  other  words,  the  paper  must  move 
as  fast  as  an  express  train.  Picture  the  amazement  of  Benjamin 
Franklin  could  he  be  recalled  and  placed  face  to  face  with  such  a 
press,  and  measure  the  gap  that  exists  between  this  latest  product  of 
the  nineteenth  century  and  the  rude  scrawls  traced  by  the  first 
primitive  artist  on  the  walls  of  his  cavern. 

Three  color  printing  has  so  many  difficulties,  financial,  mechan- 
ical, and  chemical  connected  with  it,  that  it  has  but  lately  been 
brought  to  the  stage  where  it  could  be  made  profitable  for  the 
printer.  A  fortune  awaits  the  man  who  can  invent  an  ink  with  a 
strong  color  and  yet  transparent  enough  to  let  the  color  from  a  pre- 
vious impression  shine  through  and  enable  the  printer  to  blend  them 
into  exactly  the  shade  he  desires.  For  three  color  printing,  three 
glass  screens,  a  yellow,  a  red,  and  a  violet-blue,  together  with  a 
camera  that  can  take  three  negatives  at  once,  are  used.  One  screen 
is  placed  before  each  photographic  plate  and  of  course  keeps  out  all 
the  light  except  that  which  corresponds  to  its  own  color.  From 
these  three  negatives,  three  printing  plates  are  made  in  the  usual 
manner,  and  each  plate  is  inked  with  an  ink  of  the  same  color  as  the 
screen  that  was  used  before  it.  One  impression  is  taken,  the  paper 
allowed  to  dry,  then  another  applied  directly  over  the  first  so  that 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING.  603 

every  part  corresponds  to  the  minutest  detail,  it  is  again  dried  and 
the  third  plate  used  in  the  same  manner.  It  is  plain  then  that  each 
plate  prints  its  particular  color  in  the  places  and  in  the  same  degree 
in  which  that  color  entered  into  the  formation  of  the  picture.  If  a 
red  be  printed  on  top  of  a  yellow,  the  yellow  shines  through  and  an 
orange  effect  is  produced.  Blue  printed  on  top  of  red  gives  purple, 
and  when  all  three  colors  are  superimposed  a  neutral  black  is  pro- 
duced. All  that  is  needed  to  make  it  perfect  is  an  ink  that  will  not 
mix  with  the  other  inks  and  still  be  transparent  enough  to  allow  the 
underlying  colors  to  shine  through.  Some  inks  have  been  produced 
that  give  very  good  results,  and  there  have  been  several  books  with 
colored  plates  recently  issued,  notably  Dr.  Holland's  "Butterfly 
Book,"  in  which  especially  fine  work  has  been  done.  There  are  yet 
many  difficult  problems  to  be  solved  before  colored  printing  can 
become  widely  used,  but  the  rough  plans  have  been  drawn  and  the 
new  century  will  without  doubt  work  out  the  details. 

Typesetting  Machines.  The  wonderful  machines  just  described 
would  be  shorn  of  much  of  their  power  if  they  were  not  supplemented 
by  typesetting  machines.  Few  who  look  upon  a  printed  page 
realize  the  intricate  process  and  amount  of  work  required  to  produce 
it.  Every  letter,  punctuation  mark,  and  space  is  represented  by  a 
type,  and  the  spaces  are  sometimes  made  up  of  several  types.  For 
the  proper  placing  of  each  one  of  these  a  compositor  has  the  follow- 
ing distinct  operations  to  perform.  He  must  pick  up  the  type  from 
a  chaotic  heap  in  the  box  allotted  to  it.  He  must  see  that  it  is  the 
right  one  and  not  some  other  type  placed  there  by  mistake.  He 
must  turn  it  so  it  will  be  right  end  up  and  right  side  foremost.  He 
must  place  it  in  the  "composing  stick"  or  typeholder  in  its  proper 
place  and  order.  This  he  must  do  with  each  individual  type,  and 
when  he  has  set  enough  to  approximately  fill  the  line  he  mi/st 
"justify"  or  space  it  so  as  to  exactly  fill  the  space  allotted  to  the 


604 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


width  of  the  column.  After  he  has  set  a  few  lines  he  must  interrupt 
his  work  and  place  the  finished  lines  in  the  "galley,"  for  the 
"  stick  "  will  hold  but  two  or  three  inches  of  the  column. 

Typesetting  machines  have  dispensed  with  all  this  and  have  been 
one  of  the  most  powerful  factors  in  cheapening  and  increasing  the 
production  of  printed  matter.  The  first  patent  for  a  typesetting 
and  type-making  machine  was  issued  in  England  in  1822  to  Dr. 
William  Church,  who  claimed  a  speed  for  his  machine  of  75,000  ems 
an  hour,  but  it  did  not  prove  practicable,  although  many  of  his  de- 
vices were  afterwards  utilized  by  other  inventors.  The  first  prac- 
tical machine  in  the  United  States  was  that  of  Clay  and  Rosenberg, 
patented  in  1842,  but  it  was  not  favorably  received  by  the  printers. 
Simpler  machines  were  required.  A  machine  invented  by  Mitchell 
appeared  and  was  used  for  a  time,  but  did  not  come  into  general  use 
because  there  was  no  good  "distributer"  to  go  with  it. 

The  Linotype  Machine.  For 
newspaper  working  where  speed, 
economy  of  composition,  and  facili- 
ty in  "making  ready"  are  of  the 
highest  consideration,  the  "Lino- 
type" machine  stands  preeminent. 
This,  the  invention  of  Ottmar  Mer- 
genthaler  of  Baltimore,  was  invented 
in  1884  and  patented  in  1885,  with 
several  subsequent  patents  for  im- 
provements, and  put  at  work  in  the 
office  of  the  New  York  Tribune  in 
1886  to  the  great  astonishment  and 
alarm  of  the  old-time  compositors. 
It  is  a  most  complicated  ma- 
chine, represents  the  working  of  many  minds,  and  embodies  1400  pat- 
ented ideas.  It  dispenses  with  both  type  and  typesetters,  and  casts 


THE  LINOTYPE. 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING.  605 

a  finished  line  ready  for  printing.  It  requires  only  a  pot  of  melted 
type  metal,  and  an  operator  to  manipulate  a  keyboard,  to  do  many 
times  the  work  of  a  hand  compositor.  Although  so  complicated  it 
is  a  marvel  of  mechanical  construction,  weighs  less  than  a  ton,  and 
occupies  but  little  floor  space.  So  efficient  is  the  machine  that  it  is 
now  found  in  nearly  all  the  offices  of  the  great  daily  newspapers  of 
the  civilized  world. 

Construction  and  Mode  of  Operation.  In  the  body  of  tl)e  ma- 
chine is  a  magazine  which  contains  about  1500'  brass  matrices  with 
which  the  machine  does  its  work.  Enough  matrices  placed  side  by 
side  to  fill  the  space  of  a  line  form  a  mold  just  large  enough  for  the 
body  of  the  type  for  a  line,  'having  along  the  edge  of  the  mold 
characters  sunk  into  the  material  of  the  matrix.  These  matrices  are 
held  ready  for  use,  each  character  in  its  own  compartment,  in  the 
magazine  at  the  top  of  the  machine.  The  machine  has  a  keyboard 
like  a  typewriter,  with  107  keys,  allowing  the  use  of  that  many 
characters  and  requiring  as  many  compartments  in  the  magazine. 

The  operator  presses  a  key.  The  matrix  which  is  lowermost  in 
the  compartment  corresponding  to  that  key  is  released  and  slides 
down  a  channel  from  the  magazine,  right  end  out  and  right  side  up, 
and  lands  on  a  traveling  belt  which  carries  it  rapidly  to  a  little  com- 
partment at  the  left  of  the  operator,  where  it  is  rapidly  followed  by 
the  other  matrices  which  are  necessary  to  make  up  the  line.  The 
spaces  are  filled  by  a  combination  matrix  made  up  of  two  wedges, 
arranged  end  for  end.  As  the  matrices  are  slid  into  this  collecting 
compartment,  they  are  in  full  view  of  the  operator,  and,  if  he  touches 
the  wrong  key,  the  matrix  can  be  extracted  and  the  right  one  in- 
serted in  its  place.  When  the  line  is  nearly  full,  a  bell  warns  the 
operator  to  look  out  for  his  syllable  division.  When  the  line  is  com- 
pleted, a  touch  of  a  lever  presses  the  space  wedge  together  and  auto- 
matically "  justifies"  the  line.  A  touch  of  another  lever  sends  the 


6o6          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

completed  line  of  matrices  hurrying  away  to  the  molding  wheel. 
Connected  with  this  wheel  is  a  pot  of  type  metal,  kept  in  a  molten 
condition  by  a  Bunsen  burner  underneath.  When  the  line  of  ma- 
trices is  in  position  on  one  face  of  the  wheel,  a  piston-like  plunger 
descends  into  the  pot  and  forces  a  jet  of  molten  type  metal  through 
a  slot  in  the  wheel  against  the  face  of  the  matrices.  The  metal 
solidifies  into  a  solid  type  bar,  along  the  edge  of  which  stand  out  the 
raised  letters  in  the  position  for  printing.  A  turn  of  the  wheel,  and 
this  type  bar  is  loosened  from  the  matrix,  and  automatically  trimmed 
to  the  exact  shape  and  size  required.  Then  it  is  delivered  to  a  col- 
lecting galley,  from  which  it  is  taken  to  make  up  the  form.  As  the 
molding  wheel  completes  its  revolution,'  an  arm  comes  down  from  the 
top  of  the  machine,  seizes  the  line  of  matrices  and  carries  it  to  the  top 
of  the  machine,  placing  it  on  the  distributing  bar.  One  end  of  the 
matrix  is  notched  in  a  very  peculiar  way,  each  kind  of  character 
having  its  distinguishing  notch  and  one  notch  which  is  common  to  all, 
The  distributing  bar  has  two  sets  of  projections  forming  longitudinal 
ridges  on  one  side.  One  set  engages  the  notches  which  are  common 
to  all  the  matrices.  The  other  set  fits  every  one  of  the  different  sets, 
107  in  all.  On  this  bar  the  line  of  matrices  is  strung  and  moved 
ahead  by  a  worm  gear.  Soon  the  line  comes  to  a  place  in  the  bar 
where  there  is  a  gap  in  the  ridges.  Fifteen  or  twenty  of  the  matrices 
may  pay  no  attention  to  the  gap,  but  then  there  will  come  one  which 
deliberately  drops  out  of  the  procession  at  that  point  and  goes  scur- 
rying down  to  its  place  in  the  magazine,  ready  for  use  when  it  is 
needed.  Soon  others  drop  out,  for  there  are  107  of  those  gaps,  each 
one  of  which  is  a  trap  for  its  own  particular  set  of  notches  and  which 
will  not  stop  any  other  set ;  nor  will  it  let  the  matrix  having  its  set 
of  notches  go  past.  If  it  tries  to  do  so,  the  whole  machine  stops. 
The  distributing  bar  cannot  make  a  mistake,  and  the  worst  it  can  do 
is  to  stop  when  there  is  an  error  threatened.  An  operator  is  required 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING.  607 

at  the  keyboard,  and  all  the  other  work  is  performed  automatically, 
the  power  being  furnished  by  any  convenient  motor.  The  machine 
performs  its  work  with  a  never-failing  accuracy  so  human-like  that  it 
seems  almost  uncanny. 

Typesetting  machines  proper  actually  set  type  ready  for  use  I 
instead  of  setting  matrices.  Of  these  the  "Empire  Typesetting 
Machine"  is  one  of  the  best.  This  machine  sets  type  of^any  size,  all 
that  is  necessary  being  to  have  them  "nicked."  The  machine  is 
simple ;  the  working  parts  are  few  in  number,  are  easy  of  access,  and 
not  likely  to  get  out  of  order.  During  the  entire  operation  of  com- 
position, justification  and  transferring  the  line  to  the  galley,  the  face 
of  the  type  is  in  plain  view  of  the  operator,  making  it  easy  to  correct 
any  errors  due  to  striking  the  wrong  key.  It  can  be  quickly  adjusted 
to  set  lines  of  any  length.  The  type  are  held  in  a  magazine  at  the 
top  of  the  machine,  containing  84  channels,  one  for  each  separate 
character.  It  has  a  keyboard  of  84  characters,  and  when  a  key  is 
touched  the  corresponding  type  is  released  in  the  magazine  and  car- 
ried downward  to  a  point  where  they  assemble  into  line,  and  drops 
into  the  line-holder  in  the  exact  order  in  which  the  keys  are  pressed. 
The  line-holder  moves  forward  each  time  like  the  carriage  of  a 
typewriter,  leaving  space  to  receive  another  type.  When  a  word  is 
completed  the  operator  touches  a  space  key  and  a  thin  wedge  is 
automatically  inserted  between  the  types.  When  the  line-holder 
is  nearly  filled,  a  bell  rings  notifying  the  operator  to  finish  the  line 
properly.  As  soon  as  the  line  is  set  up  the  operator  touches  a  line- 
key  which  automatically  brings  an  empty  line-holder  into  position 
and  starts  the  automatic  mechanism  which  justifies  the  other  line  and 
transfers  it  to  the  galley,  these  operations  requiring  no  attention 
whatever  on  his  part. 

Typesetting  machines  have  not  proved  as  popular  as  was  at  first 
anticipated.     The  Empire  is  fitted  with  the   "  McClintock  Justifier," 


6o8 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


and  its  speed  is  limited  only  by  that  of  the  operator  at  the  key- 
board, for  the  machine  has  a  capacity  of  10,000  ems  an  hour,  while 
the  average  day's  work  of  a  hand  compositor  is  only  from  5500  to 
6500  ems  per  day. 

After  the  type  have  been  used  they  are  carried  to  a  separate  ma- 
chine which   "distributes"    or    assorts   the 
different  letters.      In    this  machine   a  page 
or  block   of   type   matter   is   placed  on  the 
galley  of   the  distributer,    where    it  is    au- 
tomatically   fed   into    the    assorting    mech- 
anism one   at  a  time,  the  machinery  recog- 
nizing the   different  characters,  each  by  its 
especial    "nick"    only    i-ioo    of    an   inch 
deep,  and  distributing  it  to  its  proper  com- 
partment.     The  machine  works  at  the  rate 
of  6000  ems  an  hour  without  requiring  any 
attention  from  the  attendant  except  to  see 
that  it  is  supplied  with  material.      The  type 
when  distributed   fall  into  trays,  which  an 
|9     attendant  picks  up  without   disturbing  and 
places   in  the   magazine    at   the  top   of  the 
composing  machine  ready  to  be  used  again. 
The   Empire  permits  the  setting  by  the  compositor  of  the  italics, 
small  caps,  and  peculiar  sorts  of  type  occasionally  used,  and  the  dis- 
tributing machine  receives  these  and,  recognizing  them  as  something 
foreign,  deposits  them  in  a  separate  channel. 

Stereotyping.  Before  the  invention  of  stereotypes  a  book  ap- 
pearing in  different  editions  must  be  reset  for  each  edition  or  be  kept 
continually  in  type  with  all  the  attendant  risks  of  error,  damage  to 
the  type  face,  and  idleness  of  capital  invested  in  type.  About  1725 
William  Ged,  a  goldsmith  of  Edinburgh,  invented  the  plaster  process 


THE  EMPIRE  TYPESETTER. 


PHOTOGRAPHY    AND    PRINTING.  609 

of  stereotyping,  and  a  company  was  formed  in  1731  to  exploit  it. 
Two  prayer  books  were  printed  for  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
but  the  contract  was  abandoned  because  of  the  crudeness  of  the 
process  and  the  hostility  the  workmen  displayed  toward  the  inno- 
vation. 

Ged  brushed  over  the  form,  or  body  of  the  type,  with  oil,  in- 
closed the  edges  in  a  box-like  frame  and  poured  plaster  of  paris  over 
it,  forming  a  mold  corresponding  with  the  face  of  the  type.  The 
mold  was  next  removed  and  baked  in  an  oven  until  all  the  moisture 
was  driven  out.  It  was  then  used  as  a  mold  for  molten  type  metal, 
the  resulting  casting  having  the  same  face  as  the  body  of  type  from 
which  the  mold  was  made.  This  method  was  introduced  into 
America  by  David  Bruce  of  New  York  in  1813,  and  the  first  work 
stereotyped  was  the  New  Testament,  issued  in  1814. 

The  Clay  Process  next  followed.  In  this,  the  body  of  type 
is  locked,  the  face  brushed  with  benzine  or  naphtha  and  covered  with 
a  cloth.  A  layer  about  one  quarter  of  an  inch  thick,  of  ground  clay  and 
plaster  of  paris,  is  then  turned  down  over  the  type  and  an  impression 
taken.  The  press  is  then  opened,  the  cloth  removed  and  another 
and  more  accurate  impression  taken.  The  mold  is  then  removed 
and  hardened  by  drying  and  a  casting  representing  the  type  face 
secured  by  pouring  the  molten  type  metal  into  it.  By  placing  the 
plastic  mold  in  a  curved  shell,  curved  plates  adapted  to  the  Hoe 
press  can  be  made. 

The  Papier-Mache  Process,  invented  by  Ganoux  in  1829,  has 
supplanted  all  others  and  is  the  process  adopted  by  all  large  daily 
papers  where  cylinder  presses  are  used.  If  the  form  is  a  flat  one  the 
face  of  the  type  may  be  slightly  oiled,  or  the  face  of  the  paper 
powdered  with  French  chalk  and  the  plastic  sheets  of  papier-mache 
laid  over  the  type,  covered  on  the  back  with  a  linen  cloth,  and  beaten 
down  with  fine  wire  brushes  until  a  matrix  is  formed  exactly  cor- 


6lO  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

responding  to  the  face  of  the  type.  The  matrix  is  then  removed, 
dried,  and  used  as  a  mold. 

Better  and  quicker  work  is  done  by  machinery.  A  large  sheet  of 
thick,  unsized  paper  is  covered  with  a  layer  of  papier-mache  paste, 
over  which  sheets  of  tissue  paper  are  laid  and  carefully  rolled 
smooth  by  a  heavy  iron  roller.  The  prepared  sheet  is  then  run  under 
a  press  roll  where  it  receives  the  impression  of  the  type,  is  taken  to  a 
drying  press,  held  under  pressure  while  it  dries,  then  heated  for  a  few 
seconds  in  a  hot  oven  to  remove  any  lingering  moisture.  It  is  then 
placed  in  a  casting  box  shaped  according  to  the  shape  of  the  plates  to 
be  made.  The  box  incloses  the  bottom  and  three  sides.  A  plate  is 
placed  over  the  face  with  a  space  intervening  equal  to  the  desired 
thickness  of  the  stereotype,  and  the  metal  poured  in  at  the  open 
end.  It  is  cooled  rapidly,  removed,  and  trimmed.  By  this  process 
curved  stereotype  plates,  accurately  fitting  the  cylinders  of  a  Hoe 
press,  have  been  made  in  six  minutes. 

If  the  printing  were  done  directly  from  the  face  of  the  type  the 
resulting  wear  and  damage  would  be  no  small  item ;  moreover,  after 
being  stereotyped,  the  type  can  be  distributed  and  used  again,  sav- 
ing the  locking  up  of  considerable  capital  in  idle  type. 

TYPEWRITING    MACHINES. 

The  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  witnessed  the  develop- 
ment of  the  typewriter,  a  machine  so  unique  that  it  has  lightened 
the  labors  of  men  in  business,  science,  education,  and  theology. 
11  Wherever  thought  is  to  be  rapidly,  legibly,  conveniently,  and 
economically  expressed  the  typewriter  is  supreme." 

"In  business  circles  its  desirability  is  assured.  Lawyers  and 
journalists  cannot  do  without  it.  Professional  and  scientific  men 
realize  its  worth  to  them.  The  author  and  thinker  finds  it  invaluable. 
It  conserves  the  most  potent  kind  of  energy — that  of  the  brain — by 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING.  6ll 

reducing  to  a  minimum  the  mechanical  labor  of  writing,  and  distrib- 
uting it  among  all  the  fingers  of  both  hands.  Writer's  cramp  disap- 
pears where  it  is  used.  It  presents  the  printed  appearance  of  the 
work  to  the  mind  at  once.  It  is  justly  called  'the  right  hand  of 
stenographers,'  as  they  would  be  crippled  without  it.  It  has 
vastly  enhanced  their  professional  opportunities  and  earnings.  It 
has  demonstrated  in  the  plainest  way  to  a  multitude  of  busy  men  of 
affairs  the  value  of  stenographic  labor.  It  lightens  their  work, 
economizes  their  time,  and  thereby  increases  their  ability  to  person- 
ally attend  to  matters  of  greater  importance.  They  no  longer  need 
to  give  personal  attention  to  every  detail  of  their  correspondence. 
The  transmission  of  intelligence  by  telegraph  has  been  revolutionized 
by  its  aid.  Operators  no  longer  fear  'pen  paralysis,'  andean  per- 
form more  work  with  less  fatigue,  and  at  a  greater  speed  than  here- 
tofore. 

"To  educators  it  offers  one  of  the  most  valuable  assistants  in  the 
training  of  pupils  that  has  yet  been  discovered.  The  development 
of  the  art  of  expression  is  no  longer  hindered  by  the  difficulty  of 
learning  to  write.  By  its  aid,  the  learning  of  composition,  spelling, 
grammar,  punctuation,  etc.,  etc.,  is  rendered  easy,  and  the  neat  and 
orderly  appearance  of  the  work  has  a  reflex  influence  upon  the  pen 
writing  as  well  as  the  mental  organization  of  the  scholar.  Its  field 
of  usefulness  is  unlimited." 

First  Experiments.  The  first  record  of  anything  approaching 
the  typewriter  is  a  patent  granted  to  Henry  Mills  in  1714  for  "An 
Official  Machine  or  Method  for  the  Impressing  or  Transcribing  Letters 
Singly  or  Progressively  one  after  another  as  in  Writing"  but  the 
machine  was  not  perfected  and  only  meager  details  have  survived. 

The  first  patent  for  an  American  typewriter  was  granted  William 
Austin  Burt  of  Detroit  in  1829,  but  Mr.  Burt  is  better  known  as  the 
inventor  of  the  solar  compass,  for  his  typewriter  was  not  completed. 


6 12          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

The  Burt  machine  consisted  essentially  of  a  segment   on  which  were 
the  letters  of  the  alphabet.    A  Burt  machine  could  write  very  slowly. 

In  1833  a  patent  was  granted  to  Xavier  Progrin  of  Marseilles  for 
a  typewriter  with  separate  keys  by  which  it  was  hoped  to  write 
"almost  as  rapidly  as  one  could  work  with  an  ordinary  pencil."  This 
employed  a  circle  of  type  bars  striking  downward  to  a  common  center. 
It  had  no  keyboard  and  the  bars  were  moved  by  upright  rods  passing 
up  through  the  top  plate.  His  machine  was  too  slow  to  be  of  any 
practical  use. 

The  telegraph  gave  considerable  impetus  to  researches  along  the 
line  of  writing  machines  and  in  1841  a  patent  was  issued  to  Thomas 
Wright  and  Alexander  Bain  for  a  device  containing  some  of  the 
principles  of  the  modern  typewriter,  but  Bain  did  not  attempt  to 
make  the  machine  practical  and  devoted  himself  instead  to  the  print- 
ing telegraph  with  which  his  name  is  associated.  Bain's  machine 
was  operated  by  electro-magnets. 

Thurber's  Patent.  The  first  practical  typewriter  was  invented 
by  Charles  Thurber  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  and  patented  in 
1843.  It  was  slow  and  crude  but  had  all  the  essential  characteristics 
of  the  modern  machine.  He  was  the  first  to  place  the  paper  on  a 
roller  and  give  it  a  longitudinal  motion  with  provision  for  accurate 
letter  and  word  spacing.  A  horizontal  wheel  carried  on  its  outer 
edge  rods  to  the  lower  end  of  which  were  affixed  type  and  to  the 
upper  end  a  finger  key.  The  wheel  was  turned  to  bring  the  type 
into  place  and  in  turning  inked  the  type  by  drawing  the  type-face 
over  inked  rollers.  When  the  finger  key  was  pressed  it  forced  the 
type  on  the  lower  end  of  the  rod  against  the  paper  on  the  cylinder  or 
platen  and  printed.  Thurber's  machine  was  never  manufactured  and 
a  museum  at  Worcester  contains  the  only  model  in  existence. 

The  next  marked  development  was  the  work  of  a  blind  man, 
Pierre  Foucalt,  an  instructor  of  the  Paris  Institute  for  the  Blind.  It 


PHOTOGRAPHY   AND    PRINTING.  613 

was  patented  in  1849  and  printed  raised  letters  for  the  use  of  the 
blind.  It  provided  for  line  and  letter  spacing  and  the  inventor  tried 
to  adapt  it  to  ordinary  work  by  the  use  of  carbon  paper.  It  was  ex- 
hibited at  the  World's  Fair  in  London  in  1851,  excited  considerable 
attention,  and  was  awarded  a  gold  medal,  though  it  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  used  to  any  considerable  extent. 

The  late  A.  E.  Beach  of  New  York,  an  editor  of  the  Scientific 
American,  was  the  inventor  of  a  typewriting  machine  which  con- 
tained many  good  features,  but  was  slow  in  its  operation,  although 
in  its  practical  working  it '  closely  resembles  some  of  the  modern 
machines.  The  Beach  machine  printed  only  on  strips  of  paper,  not 
on  sheets.  This  machine  received  a  gold  medal  at  the  Crystal 
Palace  Exhibition  in  1856. 

The  Remington  Machine.  Several  other  machines  now  followed 
in  close  order,  but  the  most  important  work  in  the  field  was  done  by 
C.  Latham  Sholes,  a  printer  and 
editor  of  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin, 
who  had  associated  with  him, 
S.  W.  Soule,  a  farmer  and  invent- 
or, and  Carlos  Glidden,  a  man  of 
some  means.  The  first  model 
was  completed  in  1867  and  about 
25  machines  were  made  one  after 
another  as  the  result  of  the  joint 
efforts  of  all  three  men.  The 

machine  wrote  accurately  and  with  considerable  speed,  but  did  not 
wear  well.  Soule  and  Glidden  became  discouraged  and  dropped  out, 
and  Sholes  associated  himself  with  James  Densmore  of  Meadville, 
Pennsylvania,  who  furnished  the  money  for  further  experiments. 
Several  patents  were  issued  and,  encouraged  by  Densmore,  Sholes 
continued  to  work  on  the  machines  and  make  improvements,  but  was 


614 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


not  able  to  enlist  sufficient  capital  to  have  his  machines  made  in 
shops  equipped  for  work  requiring  such  accuracy,  and  they  did 
not  work  smoothly  and  broke  down  under  strain  of  actual  service. 
In  1873  a  contract  was  made  with  the  famous  gun  makers,  E.  Rem- 
ington and  Sons  of  Ilion,  N.  Y.,  and  the  machine  was  called,  not  by 
the  name  of  the  inventor,  but  by  that  of  the  manufacturer,  Reming- 
ton, who  consented  to  undertake  the  financial  venture  in  an  untried 
field.  The  unknown  inventor  could  well  afford  to  sink  his  identity, 
for  the  name  "  Remington  "  was  a  guaranty  of  good  workmanship 
and  good  material. 

The  first  Remington  machines  were  placed  on  the  market  in  1874. 
Compared  with  those  of  to-day  they  were  rather  crude  affairs,  being 
able  to  print  only  capital  letters  at  a  rate  of  speed  but  little  faster 
than  could  be  written  by  hand,  but  the  idea  was  there  and  the  inven- 
tion per  se  was  completed.  The  machine  was  exhibited  at  the  Cen- 
tennial in  1876  and  attracted 
considerable  attention,  but 
until  1882  comparatively 
few  machines  had  been  sold 
and  the  business  seemed 
likely  to  result  in  a  failure, 
when  it  was  reorganized  and, 
under  the  management  of 
Wyckoff,  Seamans  and  Bene- 
dict, the  name  "  Remington" 
became  so  familiar  that  for 
years  many  people  consid- 
ered ''typewriter"  and  "Remington"  synonymous  terms.  The 
works  at  Ilion  were  enlarged  until  the  factory  was  able  to  turn  out 
a  complete  machine  every  five  minutes.  The  first  machine  printed 
only  capitals,  but  by  the  invention  of  Crandall  and  Brooks  more  than 


PHOTOGRAPHY    AND    PRINTING.  615 

one  letter  was  put  on  a  type  bar  and  the  carriage  operated  by  the 
shift  key  gave  a  backward  and  forward  motion.  One  company  could 
not  long  control  such  a  profitable  business  and  soon  others  were  in 
the  field  evading  existing  patents  and  making  improvements,  until 
now  a  typewriting  machine  is  a  matter  of  personal  choice  to  the 
operator  and  any  one  of  a  dozen  will  give  excellent  service.  Among 
those  best  known  and  in  order  of  their  appearance  are  the  Reming- 
ton, Caligraph,  Hammond,  Crandall,  Yost,  Smith  Premier,  Barlock, 
Densmore,  Williams,  Underwood,  and  Wellington. 

Manifolding.  Copying  inks  are  now  made  for  use  in  typewriter 
ribbons  and  typewriter  pads  that  enable  its  work  to  be  copied  in  the 
ordinary  letter  press. 

Carbon  paper  is  made  by  treating  paper  of  a  light  spongy  tex- 
ture with  oil  in  which  coloring  matter  is  mixed.  If  a  sheet  of  carbon 
is  placed  between  two  ordinary  sheets  of  writing  paper  and  the  whole 
put  in  a  machine,  the  type,  while  making  a  direct  impression  upon 
the  first  sheet,  strikes  upon  the  back  of  the  carbon  and  produces  an 
exact  copy  on  the  second  sheet,  and  by  using  thin  paper  and  increas- 
ing the  number  of  layers  several  copies  can  be  made  at  once. 

Special  typewriters  for  different  kinds  of  work  are  now  made. 
The  "  Comptometer  "  and  the  "  Numerograph  "  are  a  combination 
of  typewriter  and  calculating  machine  used  in  banks.  They  write 
columns  of  figures  and  foot  up  the  result  in  an  instant  without  error. 
Typewriters  can  be  made  that  will  write  shorthand  characters  or  for- 
eign languages,  and  special  attachments  enable  them  to  make  out 
bills  and  do  tabulating,  while  one  machine  in  the  market  can  be  used 
to  write  on  blank  books.  The  speed  of  a  first-class  typewriting 
machine  is  limited  only  by  the  ability  of  the  operator,  and  many  can 
write  more  than  100  words  a  minute  from  memorized  sentences. 
About  half  a  million  typewriters  are  now  in  use  in  the  United  States 
alone,  and  the  annual  exports  of  the  machine  now  equal  about 
$2,000,000,  and  its  familiar  click  is  heard  in  every  part  of  the  world. 


ADVANCE  IN  AGRICULTURAL  MACHINERY. 


Improvements  Cheapen  the  Cost  of  Food  —  Ancient  Reaping  Machine  —  Evolution  of 
the  Modern  Reaper — Automatic  Binder  —  Plows  —  Early  Plows  and  Steam  Plows  — 
Methods  of  Thrashing  Grain  —  Flail  —  Tread  Power  —  Steam  Thrasher  —  Expense  of  Old 
and  New  Methods — Harvesting — What  Labor-Saving  Devices  Have  Made  Possible  — 
Dairy  Machinery  —  Grain  Storage  and  Handling —  How  the  World  is  Fed  —  Grain  Eleva- 
tors—  How  Wheat  is  Sold — Cotton  and  Cotton  Manufacturing  —  Kinds  of  Cotton  —  Eli 
Whitney's  Cotton  Gin  —  What  It  Did  for  the  Cotton  Grower  —  Textile  Machinery  — 
Distaff — Spindle — Spinning  Wheel — Inventors  of  Textile  Machinery  Combated  by 
Angry  Operators — First  Cotton  Mills  in  America — Growth  of  the  Cotton  Industry. 


H  E    improvement 
*        in  machinery  has 
not    been    confined    to 
any   one   line,    but    all 
trades,   industries,   and 

occupations  have  alike  felt  its  magic  touch. 
Agriculture  is  no  exception,  and  the  gap  is  a 
wide  one  that  separates  Maud  Miiller  and  her 

hand   rake  from   to-day's    strong  steel-fingered    machine    drawn    by 
horses. 

Every  improvement  in  agricultural  machinery  that  has  cheapened 
the  price  of  bread  has  been  so  far-reaching  in  its  effects  that  no  limit 
can  be  set  to  its  boundaries.  Any  reduction  in  the  cost  of  food 
means  a  shortening  of  the  hours  of  toil,  more  money  for  clothing,  and 
more  time  to  give  to  those  things  which  make  life  worth  living.  An 
increased  demand  for  any  article  reacts  upon  all  the  allied  industries 
which  supply  the  labor  or  raw  materials  that  enter  in  any  way  into 
the  construction  of  that  article. 

If  Richard  Roe  is  compelled  to  use  50  per  cent,  of  his  labor  for 
food,  and  improvements  in  farm  machinery  cheapen  the  price  of  his 


ADVANCE    IN   AGRICULTURAL    MACHINERY.  617 

food  20  per  cent.,  then  he  has  10  per  cent,  of  the  entire  proceeds  of 
his  labor  which  he  can  devote  to  the  purchase  of  seeming  luxuries. 
Now  Richard  Roe  represents  a  large  class,  and  suppose  with  his  sur- 
plus he  buys  so  prosaic  an  article  as  shoes.  This  means  an  increased 
demand  for  leather,  for  more  cattle,  for  the  hay  to  feed  them,  for  the 
mowing  machine  with  which  to  cut  the  hay,  for  skilled  workmen  to 
manufacture  the  machines,  for  lumber,  iron,  and  steel,  for  coal  to 
smelt  the  ore,  and  food  and  clothing  for  the  whole  industrial  army 
engaged.  True,  a  reaper  takes  the  place  of  several  laborers  in  the 
harvest  field,  but  see  what  a  chain  of  industrial  forces  it  sets  in 
operation. 

The  policies  of  colonization  adopted  by  the  governments  of  Canada 
and  the  United  States  rapidly  brought  into  cultivation  vast  areas  of 
virgin  soil  particularly  well  adapted  to  labor-saving  machinery  and 
offered  a  wonderful  stimulus  to  invention.  The  widespread  use  of 
steam  power  and  increased  manufactures  in  turn  stimulated  agricul- 
tural production  to  supply  raw  materials,  and  seeders,  harvesters, 
self-binders,  gang  plows,  steam  thrashers,  mowing  machines,  hay 
rakes,  and  cultivators  have  taken  many  a  back  ache  out  of  farm  work 
and  rendered  it  possible  for  one  man  to  perform  the  work  which  only 
a  generation  ago  required  twenty. 

The  first  reaping  machine  is  that  described  by  the  elder  Pliny, 
23  A.  D.,  who  says,  "In  the  vast  dominions  of  the  Province  of 
Gaul  a  large  hollow  frame,  armed  with  comb-like  teeth  and  supported 
on  two  wheels,  is  driven  through  the  standing  grain,  the  beasts  being 
yoked  behind  it,  the  result  being  that  the  ears  are  torn  off  and  fall 
within  the  frame."  One  would  not  expect  this  rude  contrivance  to 
survive,  but  the  same  device  (header)  only  elaborated  is  found,  at 
work  to-day  in  the  western  wheat  fields  of  the  United  States,  the 
Dominion  of  Canada,  and  the  plains  of  Australia. 

The  first   reaping   machine  of  modern  times   is  that  patented 


6i8 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


by  Pitt  of  England  in  1786,  who  attached  combs  to,  a  revolving 
cylinder  and  geared  the  cylinder  to  the  wheels  on  which  the  machine 
rolled  over  the  field,  tearing  off  the  heads  of  the  grain  as  it  was 
driven  through.  Rev.  Patrick  Bell,  of  Scotland,  in  1828-1829, 
built  a  .reaping  machine  having  a  reel,  but  employing  shears  to 
cut  the  grain.  The  reel  has  survived.  Various  improvements  were 
made  in  England  from  time  to  time,  but  the  harvest  fields  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada  were  yet  full  of  the  stumps  of  the  virgin 
forest. 

Machines  of  Hussy  and  McCormick.  The  first  practically 
efficient  reapers  were  those  of  Obed  Hussy  of  Maryland  and  Cyrus 
H.  McCormick  of  Virginia  which  appeared  in  the  early  thirties. 
Hussy's  patent  was  obtained  December  31,  1833,  and  embodied  the 

now  familiar  cutter 
bar  playing  between 
double  guard  fingers. 
It  was  drawn  by 
horses  hitched  in 
front,  had  a  side  cut 
and  a  platform  on 
which  the  operator 
stood  who  raked  off 
the  grain.  The  Mc- 
Cormick reaper,  pat- 
ented June  21,  1834, 
had  two  cutter  bars 
working  in  opposite 
directions  to  each  other  and  was  pushed  ahead  by  the  team,  although, 
in  the  description  of  its  patent,  McCormick  said  that  one  cutter 
bar  could  be  used,  and  the  team  attached  at  the  front  of  the  ma- 
chine. Although  not  patented  until  1834,  McCormick's  machine 


McCoRMiCK's  FIRST  HARVESTER. 


ADVANCE    IN    AGRICULTURAL    MACHINERY.  619 

was  successfully  tried  in  1831.  It  contained  V-shaped  knives  ar- 
ranged on  a  cutter  bar  moving  back  and  forth  through  finger  guards, 
a  platform  on  which  the  grain  fell,  a  reel  to  hold  the  grain  against 
the  knives  while  cutting,  and  a  projecting  hand  or  divider  which  ran 
ahead  and  separated  the  grain  to  be  cut  from  that  left  standing.  A 
workman  walked  behind  the  machine  and  with  a  hand  rake  drew  off 
the  grain  from  the  platform  and  made  it  into  bundles.  The  team 
was  attached  ahead  of  the  machine  and  was  guided  by  a  boy  riding 
the  "  near"  horse.  McCormick's  and  Hussy's  machines  were  practi- 
cable and  from  the  first  were  successful.  They  were  greatly  im- 
proved, displayed  at  the  World's  Fair  in  London  in  1851  and  placed 
in  competition,  although  Mr.  Hussy  was  not  present.  The  judges 
awarded  the  premium  to  the  McCormick  machine  and  declared  that 
it  was  worth  to  the  people  of  England  as  much  as  the  exposition  had 
cost.  But  at  a  subsequent  trial  that  year  before  another  jury,  Mr. 
Hussy  was  present,  exhibited  his  machine  and  obtained  the  award 
over  that  of  McCormick,  and  at  the  close  of  the  competition  the 
Prince  of  Wales  ordered  two  of  Hussy's  machines. 

Later  Improvements.  Various  improvements  followed  thick  and 
fast.  Hussy  patented  the  open-finger  guard  now  so  generally  used 
on  mowers  and  reapers.  In  1851  W.  H.  Seymour  substituted  for 
the  heavy  platform  the  now  familiar  one  shaped  like  the  quarter  sec- 
tion of  a  circle  and  added  a  self-raker.  The  single  arm  vibratory 
rake  appeared  about  1855,  invented  by  Samuel  Johnson  of  Brock- 
port,  N.  Y.  Improvements  in  machinery  for  the  working  of  iron 
and  steel  made  possible  the  lightening  of  weight  and  the  consequent 
cheapening  and  improvement  of  the  reaper  until  the  present  machine 
drawn  by  a  pair  of  horses  can  easily  cut  and  throw  off  into  gavels  to 
be  bound  by  the  workmen  from  eight  to  twelve  acres  of  grain  per 
day. 

The  Automatic  Binder.     The  reaper  took  the  place  of  four  or 


620  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

five  laborers  armed  with  cradles,  and  the  next  demand  was  for  a 
binder  that  would  do  away  with  hand  labor.  John  E.  Heath  of 
Ohio,  to  whom  a  patent  was  granted  July  22,  1854,  for  binding 
sheaves  with  cord,  is  the  pioneer  in  this  line.  Other  patents  were 
soon  issued  to  other  inventors,  for  to  tie  a  knot  in  a  stretched  string 
was  a  hard  problem.  Wire  was  substituted  for  cord  but  its  use 
proved  objectionable.  It  got  into  the  grain  when  thrashed  and  mag- 
nets were  necessary  at  the  flouring  mills  to  separate  the  iron  from 
the  wheat.  Cattle  were  injured  by  swallowing  pieces  of  wire  while 
eating  the  straw,  and  the  inventors  turned  once  more  to  the  problem 
of  the  stretched  string.  Jacob  Behel  solved  it  and  obtained  a  patent 
February  16,  1864,  for  a  knotting  apparatus  that  looped  the  cord 
and  formed  a  knot,  while  a  cord-holder  retained  the  end  of  the  twine. 
Several  patents  were  issued  and  many  applications  for  patents  were 
made,  but  it  remained  for  Marquis  L.  Gorham  of  Illinois  to  take  out, 
February  9,  1875,  a  patent  for  a  thoroughly  successful  automatic 
twine  binder,  and  John  F.  Appleby  improved  upon  it  February  18, 
1879. 

The  automatic  self-binding  reaper  will  cut  the  grain,  bind  it,  carry 
the  bundles,  and  deposit  them  in  a  heap  ready  for  the  workmen  to 
set  up  into  shocks.  To-day  with  one  binder  and  fresh  relays  of 
horses  it  can  cut  20  acres  of  wheat  in  a  day. 

Although  in  the  United  States  only  28  patents  w^re  granted  on 
reapers  and  mowers  prior  to  1835,  more  than  20,000  have  been 
granted  since,  for  the  reaping  machine  combines  the  contributions 
of  many  ingenious  minds.  The  reaper  and  mower  are  now  highly 
specialized  machines,  being  adapted  to  the  climate,  the  soil,  the 
extent  of  the  fields,  the  crops,  and  with  especial  reference  to  whether 
the  harvest  fields  are  found  on  the  hillside  or  on  the  plain. 

In  1840  there  were  only  three  reapers  manufactured  in  the  West- 
ern Hemisphere.  At  the  end  of  another  decade  3000  had  been 


ADVANCE   IN  AGRICULTURAL    MACHINERY.  62  I 

made  and  now  about  $20,000,000  worth  are  being  made  and  sold  an- 
nually in  the  United  States  alone,  and  in  1900  there  were  exported 
about  $10,000,000  worth  to  aid  in  harvesting  the  crops  of  the  wheat 
fields  of  South  America,  Australia,  Europe,  Africa,  in  fact  every 
civilized  country  in  the  world  where  wheat  is  grown.  Two  establish- 
ments in  Chicago  alone  employ  10,000  men  in  the  manufacture  and 
sale  of  their  machines.  Three  million  five  hundred  thousand  Mc- 
Cormick  reapers  and  harvesters  have  been  made  and  sold,  an  equiva- 
lent to  putting  in  the  harvest  field  15,000,000  workers  who  were  not 
consumers  and  whose  sole  task  was  to  harvest  the  crop  and  help  lower 
the  price  of  bread. 

Tribute  to  McCormick.  In  1878  the  French  Academy  of 
Sciences  bestowed  a  medal  on  Cyrus  H.  McCormick  and  elected 
him  a  member  of  that  famous  body  in  recognition  of  his  "  having 
done  more  for  the  cause  of  agriculture  than  any  other  living  man." 

Plows  used  as  implements  for  breaking  up  the  soil  were  known 
at  a  very  early  age.  Certain  passages  of  the  Old  Testament  show 
that  at  that  time  the  shares  were  shod  with  some  kind  of  metal,  and 
plows  of  some  variety  mounted  on  wheels  were  used  by  the  early 
Greeks.  The  modern  plow  with  its  curved  moldboard  to  turn  over 
the  soil  was  invented  and  used  in  Holland  some  time  during  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  the  first  steam  plow  appeared  in  England 
in  1832. 

Steam  Plow.  The  extent  to  which  steam  power  is  now  em- 
ployed for  the  purpose  of  the  farm  is  another  marked  feature  in 
the  recent  progress  of  agriculture.  On  next  page  is  shown  the 
picture  of  a  modern  steam  plow  at  work.  This  cut  does  not  do  the 
engine  justice  for,  under  favorable  conditions,  it  can  draw  2 5 'plows 
at  a  rate  of  three  miles  per  hour,  plowing  the  soil  much  deeper  than 
is  ordinarily  done  by  means  of  horses.  Let  us  see  what  it  costs  a 
day  to  run  this  great  labor-saving  machine :  — 


622 


THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

One  engineer $3-5° 

Fireman 2.50 

Man  to  drive  water  wagon i  .50 

Two  horses  and  wagon 1 .00 

Feed  for  horses 50 

Sharpening  plows 2.00 

Oil  for  engine 25 

One  and  one  half  tons  soft  coal 8.50 


Total  cash  outlay $19-75 

The  foregoing  estimate  is  for  work  on  the  Pacific  coast,  where 
wages  are  high  and  coal  expensive.  The  cost  would  be  less  in  these 
respects  in  the  middle  West. 


BEST'S  TRACTIQN  ENGINE. — It  will  do  the  work  of  100  horses. 

When  we  consider  that  it  costs  the  Eastern  farmer  from  two  to 
three  dollars  per  acre  to  do  with  horses  what  this  engine  will  do  for 
from  25  to  30  cents,  we  can  understand  some  of  the  difficulties  he 


ADVANCE   IN   AGRICULTURAL    MACHINERY.  623 

has  in  competing  with  the  rich  grain  growing  fields  of  the  West. 
Furthermore,  the  engine  will  do  the  work  of  one  hundred  horses  and 
when  not  at  work  isn't  "eating  its  head  off."  But  plowing  is  not 
the  only  thing  it  will  do.  Equipped  with  harrows,  it  will  harrow 
from  100  to  125  acres  per  day;  or  attached  to  a  steam  harvester  will 
cufi  thrash,  clean,  and  put  in  sacks,  ready  for  market,  1000  sacks  of 
grain  per  day  at  a  cost  of  less  than  50  cents  per  acre.  By  an  ingenious 
contrivance,  the  machine  is  made  to  use  as  fuel  the  straw  from  the 
grain  it  thrashes.  The  small  farmer  who  at  thrashing  time  hires 
a  comparatively  large  force  of  men  or  "changes  work"  with  his 
neighbor,  pays  more  than  this  for  the  use  of  the  thrashing  machine 
alone. 

Thrashing  Machines.  The  earliest  method  of  separating  grain 
from  the  straw  was  probably  that  of  treading  it  under  the  feet  of 
horses  and  cattle.  The  familiar  injunction,  "  Thou  shalt  not  muzzle 
the  ox  when  he  treadeth  out  the  corn,"  certainly  proves  the  method 
to  have  been  a  very  ancient  one.  Two  men  and  four  horses,  under 
the  most  favorable  conditions,  can  thrash  50  or  perhaps  100  bushels 
per  day.  Another  primitive  method,  that  of  beating  out  the  grain 
with  the  "flail,"  is  even  now  used  where  only  small  quantities  of 
grain  are  to  be  thrashed. 

The  flail  is  an  implement  consisting  of  a  great  staff  about  5  feet 
long  having  at  one  end  a  "swingle"  which  is  shorter,  thicker,  and 
heavier  than  the  staff.  The  staff  is  made  of  some  light,  strong  wood, 
and  the  swingle  of  some  tough  heavy  wood,  preferably  hickory  or 
oak.  A  bow  and  a  looped  thong  of  some  tough  leather,  such  as  eel- 
skin,  connects  the  two.  The  sheaves  of  wheat  to  be  thrashed  are 
laid  on  the  floor  with  heads  overlapping  and  a  workman  with  the 
flail  beats  out  the  grain.  It  then  has  to  be  run  through  a  fanning 
mill  to  separate  the  chaff.  Ten  bushels  of  wheat  being  a  fair  day's 
work  for  a  man  with  a  flail,  if  the  crop  were  of  any  great  size  it 


624          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

might  easily  take  the  greater  part  of  the  winter  for  the  owner  to 
thrash  it. 

Both  these  methods  could  be  carried  on  only  in  clear  dry  weather, 
and  dampness  and  rain  put  an  end  to  thrashing,  for  the  grain  be- 
came so  tough  it  could  not  be  shelled.  It  was  impossible  for  the 
farmer  to  thrash  out  his  grain  in  time  to  carry  it  to  market  while  the 
roads  were  good,  or  to  take  advantage  of  early  prices,  and  these 
methods  continued  in  vogue  until  a  comparatively  recent  time,  for  the 
thrashing  machine  is  practically  the  product  of  the  last  half  century. 

Many  demands  were  made  for  improvement  upon  the  flail,  and  in 
1786  a  Scotchman,  Andrew  Meikle,  invented  a  thrashing  machine 
which  consisted  of  a  revolving  drum  about  which  were  several  rollers. 
Taking  a  lesson  from  the  dressing  of  flax,  he  attached  "  scutches"  to 
the  drum  and  beat  out  the  grain,  throwing  grain,  chaff,  and  straw  in 
a  heap  together,  but  he  afterward  added  a  winnower  and  had  a  fairly 
efficient  machine  capable  of  being  turned  by  horse  power  or  steam 
power,  but  the  machine  cost  ,£150  easily,  equal  in  purchasing  power 
to  $2250  to-day. 

So  long  as  the  comparatively  small  farms  of  Eastern  United 
States  and  Canada  did  not  produce  much  more  grain  than  was  re- 
quired for  home  consumption  the  primitive  methods  sufficed.  Not 
so  when  the  great  wheat  fields  of  the  West  were  opened  up  to  culti- 
vation ;  then  a  cylinder  armed  with  spiked  teeth,  revolving  within 
a  section  of  a  drum  fitted  with  similar  spikes,  was  invented.  Horses 
attached  to  long  sweeps  furnished  the  motive  power.  The  sheaves 
were  unbound  and  fed  in  head  first,  and  the  grain,  chaff,  and  straw 
came  out  together  and  were  separated  by  hand,  but  shaking  screens 
were  added  which  separated  the  straw  and  part  of  the  chaff  from  the 
grain,  and  fanning  mills  or  winnowers  soon  followed,  by  which  the 
grain  was  entirely  separated  from  the  chaff  and  seed  of  the  weeds 
that  usually  accompanied  it. 


ADVANCE    IN   AGRICULTURAL    MACHINERY.  625 

The  Tread  Power  machine  next  appeared.  This  differed  from 
the  other  in  having  a  strong  endless  belt  covered  with  transverse 
slats  and  supported  at  each  edge  in  a  strong  inclined  frame.  When 
a  horse  was  placed  upon  this  inclined  belt  his  weight  caused  it  to 
slide  downward,  and  his  instinctive  efforts  to  move  forward  kept  it 
continually  in  motion  and  supplied  the  power  that  moved  the  ma- 
chinery. But  the  first  machines  were  not  satisfactory,  for  if  the 
grain  were  not  fed  in  steadily  the  motion  ran  so  high  that  the  horse 
could  not  keep  up  and  he  was  thrown  back  and  frequently  injured.  A 
heavy  balance  wheel  and  brake  were  added  and  overcame  the  diffi- 
culty. This  machine  was  an  improvement  over  the  flail  but  was  not 
equal  to  the  demand  of  the  times,  and  soon  machines  of  greater 
capacity  driven  by  from  eight  to  twelve  horses  attached  to  long 
sweeps  and  moving  in  a  circle  were  used.  But  even  these  could  not 
keep  pace  with  the  demand  and  the  steam  engine  was  brought  into 
requisition. 

The  essential  parts  of  the  thrashing  machine  of  to-day  are  a 
large  hollow  iron  cylinder,  the  outer  surface  of  which  is  armed  with 
strong  curved  light  iron  teeth  which  fit  into  similar  projections  in  the 
"concave,"  which  is  also  armed  with  teeth.  The  bundles  of  grain  are 
fed  into  the  space  between  the  concave  and  the  cylinder,  where  it  is 
shelled  by  the  teeth,  the  straw  passing  out  on  to  long  fingers,  which 
toss  it  about  and  shake  the  grain  out.  An  air  blast  from  a  revolving 
fan  blows  out  the  chaff,  and  the  clean  grain  flows  in  a  steady  stream 
from  one  side  of  the  machine.  The  straw  is  carried  through  to  the  rear 
end  of  the  machine  and  there  discharged  or  taken  by  a  straw-carrier,  a 
belt  with  transverse  slats,  up  an  inclined  plane  and  thrown  out  upon 
a  stack.  One  of  the  latest  devices  in  agricultural  machinery  substi- 
tutes in  place  of  the  straw-carrier  a  long  jointed  tube  16  or  18  inches 
in  diameter,  mounted  at  the  rear  of  the  cylinder.  Through  this  the 
straw  is  forced  by  compressed  air  furnished  by  the  machine.  One 


626          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

man  standing  on  top  of  the  separator  near  the  rear  end  can  raise  or 
lower  the  tube,  turn  it  to  the  right  or  left,  and  deliver  the  straw  to 
any  desired  point  on  the  stack ;  in  fact,  no  men  at  all  are  required 
to  stack  the  straw. 

Harvesting  Then  and  Now.  If  we  look  into  the  cost  of  the 
early  methods  of  harvesting,  we  find  that  one  hundred  years  ago 
grain  was  cut,  as  it  had  been  for  thousands  of  years,  with  the  sickle, 
and  the  cradle  was  just  coming  into  use.  Furthermore,  the  sickle  as 
then  used  was  not  materially  different  from  that  of  the  days  of  Boaz 
and  Ruth.  Years  ago  Henry  Ward  Beecher  said,  "  Fifty  years  ago 
there  was  more  back  ache  in  harvesting  one  acre  of  wheat  than  there 
is  to-day  in  harvesting  fifty  acres."  If  this  were  true  in  Beecher's 
time,  how  much  more  true  is  it  now  that  steam  has  come  to  lighten 
the  labors  of  the  husbandman !  The  man  with  the  sickle  could  cut 
an  acre  of  wheat  in  a  day ;  the  man  with  the  cradle  could  cut  two 
acres  per  day;  with  a  reaper,  10  acres  per  day;  with  a  header,  25 
acres  per  day ;  and  with  the  steam  harvester,  60  to  70  acres  per  day. 
Small  wonder  that  in  the  days  of  the  sickle  many  a  laboring  man's 
family  had  but  a  distant  acquaintance  with  white  bread.  To  such, 
every  advance  in  agricultural  machinery  has  made  possible  more  and 
better  food  for  the  same  amount  of  labor. 

The  cost  of  the  different  methods  of  harvesting  estimated  by  an 
English  authority  is  as  follows: — 

Done  with  a  sickle. 

Five  sickle  men  at  6oc $3.00 

Two  assistants  at  4oc 80 

Wastage  from  weather,  etc 1.15 

Cost  per  acre,  $4-95 

Done  with  a  cradle. 

One  cradler $1.20 

One  assistant 75 

Wastage  from  weather,  etc 65 

Cost  per  acre,  $2.60 


ADVANCE    IN   AGRICULTURAL    MACHINERY.  627 

Done  with  a  binder. 

Two  horses $0.30 

One  driver 20 

One  machine 10 

Twine 25 

Wastage  from  weather,  etc 40 


Cost  per  acre,  $1-25 

By  steam  harvester,         "     "       "  .50 

From  this  we  see  that  the  cradle  gained  over  the  sickle  $2.35  per 
acre;  the  binder  over  the  cradle  $1.35  per  acre;  the  steam  harvester 
over  the  binder  75  cents  per  acre,  and  over  the  primitive  method  of 
the  sickle,  $4.45  per  acre;  and  every  time  the  cost  of  production 
has  been  reduced  it  has  put  more  bread  into  the  mouths  of  the 
hungry. 

Labor-saving  devices  have  made  it  possible  to  plow  the  ground, 
plant  the  crop,  harvest,  and  deliver  the  grain  at  the  elevator  for  less 
than  the  cost  of  harvesting  alone  fifty  years  ago.  In  the  wheat  fields 
of  the  Middle  West  and  Northwest,  the  work  is  chiefly  performed 
by  horse  power,  still  the  value  of  machinery  used  there  is  enormous. 
At  Fargo,  North  Dakota,  alone,  $3,000,000  worth  is  sold  every  year 
for  use  in  the  wheat  fields  of  the  Red  River  valley.  Many  farms  in 
that  region  range  from  5000  to  10,000  acres,  or  even  larger,  and  in 
working  them  man  labor  is  reduced  to  a  minimum.  The  plowing  is 
done  with  gang  plows  and  the  cost  is  seldom  over  65  cents  an  acre. 
One  man,  with  a  25-foot  harrow,  drawn  by  six  horses,  can  harrow  50 
acres  a  day.  Four  horses  pulling  a  12-foot  drill  can  cover  25  miles 
in  a  day,  thus  planting  over  37  acres.  Wheat  growers  of  that 
region  figure  that  after  the  ground  is  plowed  it  will  cost  them  from 
70  cents  to  95  cents  per  acre  to  get  in  the  crop.  Under  ordinary 
conditions  it  can  be  harvested  for  45  cents  an  acre  and  made  ready 
for  the  thrashing  machine.  Then  one  thrashing  machine  with  thirty 
men  can  thrash  and  deliver  at  an  elevator  within  a  reasonable  dis- 
tance at  least  2500  bushels  a  day. 


628         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

Less  than  fifty  years  ago  this  grain  would  have  been  thrashed  by 
pounding  it  out  by  hand  with  a  flail  or  treading  it  out  under  the  feet 
of  horses.  Under  average  conditions  it  now  costs  the  wheat  farmer 
$1.60  per  acre  to  thrash  the  grain  and  store  it  in  the  elevator. 

Under  the  best  methods  prevailing  in  that  region  to-day,  the 
entire  labor  cost  is  about  $3.65  per  acre,  and  for  twenty  years  the 
average  on  the  largest  farms  of  that  district  has  been  $5.70  per  acre. 

Profit  and  Loss.  Now  let  us  calculate  the  margin  of  profit  for 
the  Red  River  farmers :  To  be  added  to  the  average  labor  cost  are 
all  unavoidable  expenses  connected  therewith,  such  as  repairs,  taxes, 
cost  of  seed  wheat,  interest  on  capital  invested  in  land  and  machinery. 
This  makes  an  additional  operating  expense  of  $2.85  per  acre.  Then, 
under  the  best  conditions  likely  to  prevail,  it  will  cost  the  Red  River 
farmer  $8.55  per  acre,  per  year.  For  the  past  ten  years,  his  wheat 
has  brought  him  on  an  average  55  cents  per  bushel  and  the  average 
yield  of  his  field  has  been  19  bushels  per  acre,  making  his  gross  in- 
come $10.45  Per  acre.  Deducting  from  this  the  $8.55  total  operat- 
ing expense,  he  is  left  a  margin  of  only  $1.90  per  acre.  It  is  only 
by  using  improved  machinery  and  conducting  the  business  on  a  large 
scale  and  according  to  the  best  methods,  that  this  margin  can  leave  a 
living  profit.  It  is  because  these  growers  produce  such  enormous 
quantities  that  they  have  such  a  definite  influence  in  fixing  the  price 
of  grain.  If  the  small  producer  finds  the  margin  narrow  for  him, 
he  may  console  himself  with  the  thought  that  those  who  need  it  are 
getting  better  bread  and  more  of  it  than  they  could  if  the  grain  were 
produced  at  a  price  highly  profitable  to  him.  He  will  improve  his 
own  business  prospects  by  devoting  his  energies  to  those  lines  of 
farming  in  which  intelligent  hand  labor  plays  a  large  part,  avoiding 
those  in  which  the  operations  are  so  large  as  to  profitably  employ  a 
large  acreage  and  expensive  machinery,  and  above  all  will  make  the 
most  of  the  peculiarities  of  his  soil  and  climate  and  his  proximity  to 
large  markets. 


ADVANCE   IN   AGRICULTURAL    MACHINERY. 


629 


Dairy  Machinery.  It  is  said  that  the  first  cheese  factory  in  the 
United  States  was  that  built  by  Jesse  Williams  of  Oneida  county, 
New  York,  in  1860.  The  astonishing  growth  of  the  industry  is  well 
shown  by  the  report  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  for  1900, 
which  states  that  from  the  milk  of  1,000,000  cows,  300,000,000 
pounds  of  cheese  were  made,  having  a  value  of  $27,000,000 — not  a 
bad  showing  for  an  industry  only  forty  years  old.  It  is  estimated 
that  there  are  17,500,000  milch  cows  in  the  United  States,  and  the 
annual  value  of  .the  dairy  products  aggregates  $500,000,000.  The 
value  of  the  butter  alone  is  $257,400,000. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the 
primitive  method  of  butter- 
making  carried  on  in  the  house- 
hold where  the  tin  pan,  the 
skimmer,  and  the  dash  churn 
were  employed  could  never 
produce  such  results,  and  ma- 
chinery has  revolutionized  the 
dairy  industry.  In  new  milk 
the  butter  fats,  cheese  fats,  etc., 
are  in  the  form  of  minute  glob- 
ules floating  in  the  watery  por- 
tion of  the  milk.  In  the  old 
method  of  butter-making  the 
milk  was  placed  in  pans  and  the 
fats,  being  lighter,  rose  to  the 
top  and,  collecting  there,  formed 
the  "cream."  This  was  skimmed 

off,  put  in  the  churn  and  there 

CENTRIFUGAL  MILK  SKIMMER. 

stirred  or  beaten  until  the  but- 
ter fat  globules   cohered   and  gathered   in  a  rich  yellow  mass.     All 


630  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

this  consumed  much  time  and  required  labor  not  many  steps  removed 
from  drudgery.  In  the  preceding  illustration  is  shown  a  centrif- 
ugal milk  skimmer  made  by  the  De  Laval  Separator  Company. 
Through  the  lower  pipe  steam  is  admitted  to  a  steam  turbine  in  the 
base  of  the  machine.  The  milk,  freshly  drawn  from  the  cows,  is 
turned  into  a  vat  and  fed  int'o  the  upper  part  of  the  machine.  A 
shaft  attached  to  the  turbine  at  the  base  of  the  machine  runs  into 
the  upper  part  and  terminates  in  a  pan.  The  milk  enters  the  pan 
and  is  rapidly  whirled  about.  The  cream  with  its  lighter  specific 
gravity  goes  to  the  center  and  comes  out  through  the  upper  spout ; 
the  heavier  milk  goes  to  the  outside  and  issues  through  the  lower 
spout.  The  whole  operation  requires  but  a  minute  or  two,  does 
away  with  much  work  and  makes  available  the  fresh  skim  milk — 
much  better  food  for  calves  or  pigs  than  the  sour  milk  of  the  old 
process.  By  the  old  methods  the  butter  was  made  in  different  house- 
holds and  varied  in  quality  according  to  the  skill  and  neatness  of  the 
housewife.  Now  "  butter  factories  "  stationed  at  convenient  points 
receive  the  milk  from  numerous  dairies  and  convert  it  into  butter  of 
a  uniform  grade  and  standard  quality  that  meets  with  a  ready  sale — 
so  ready,  in  fact,  that  the  entire  product  is  often  sold  in  advance  of 
its  manufacture  and  at  a  price  relatively  25  per  cent,  or  50  per  cent, 
higher  than  could  be  obtained  fifty  years  ago. 

Although  numerous  patents  have  been  issued  for  "cow  milkers," 
no  manufactured  article  has  yet  been  produced  that  could  compete 
with  the  natural  process,  and  it  requires  the  year  around  the  constant 
time  and  entire  services  of  200,000  able-bodied  men  to  milk  the 
17,500,000  milch  cows  of  the  United  States. 

GRAIN    STORAGE   AND    HANDLING. 

The  problem  of  feeding  the  world  has  only  just  begun  when  the 
wheat  has  been  grown.  In  a  few  weeks  time  the  grain  is  harvested 


ADVANCE    IN   AGRICULTURAL    MACHINERY.  63 1 

and  sold,  but  after  it  leaves  the  place  of  its  birth  in  the  Northwest  it 
takes  such  a  trip  as  few  of  its  producers  realize,  and  undergoes  some 
very  peculiar  experiences. 

After  harvest  and  until  winter  sets  in,  all  the  railroads  reaching 
the  wheat  country  are  busy  in  carrying  the  crop  to  the  nearest 
market ;  running  extra  trains,  borrowing  extra  cars,  and  straining 
every  capacity  to  the  utmost  to  take  care  of  the  crop.  Its  outrush 
from  the  place  of  its  production  is  rapid  but  its  consumption  is  con- 
tinuous and  necessitates  storing  until  needed.  In  the  interim  specu- 
lators are  busy  with  the  market  but  many  brokers  never  see  a  grain 
of  the  wheat.  For  example,  a  train  load  of  wheat  of  a  certain  quality 
may  be  received  at  Montreal  and  stored  in  a  great  elevator,  full  de- 
tails telegraphed  to  New  York  and  certificates  issued  to  the  owners. 
In  an  elevator  in  New  York  is  wheat  of  a  similar  quality,  perhaps 
two  or  three  years  old.  The  owner  of  the  Montreal  wheat  can  take 
advantage  of  sudden  turns  in  the  market  by  simply  presenting  his 
storage  certificates  at  the  storehouse  in  New  York,  which  will  issue 
him  a  certificate  for  an  equal  amount  of  New  York  wheat  less  the 
necessary  charge  to  cover  the  cost  of  storehousing  and  transporta- 
tion, and  he  can  sell  his  New  York  wheat  as  though  it  were  the 
identical  wheat  stored  in  Montreal.  By  this  method  the  transporta- 
tion of  wheat  becomes  practically  instantaneous.  All  the  great 
elevator  systems  are  organized  as  thoroughly  as  the  banks,  and  the 
transfer  of  wheat  between  them  adjusts  itself  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
keep  the  balances  even. 

Organization  Reduces  Price.  Wheat  constantly  flows  eastward, 
but  the  warehouse  system  prevents  unnecessary  handling,  for  it  is 
cheaper  to  carry  a  receipt  across  the  country  than  a  million  bushels 
of  grain.  This  simplifying  of  the  transportation  really  is  a  saving  to 
the  consumer,  much  as  we  hear  the  broker's  profits  deplored.  Of 
course,  the  grain  is  moved,  but  it  makes  only  one  trip  to  its  ultimate 


632  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

destination,  instead  of  changing  hands  and  places  at  every  transac- 
tion. It  is  the  same  as  the  international  credit  system.  Time  was 
when  a  New  York  merchant  buying  goods  in  London  had  to  send  a 
man  and  the  coin  across  the  ocean.  The  ship  might  be  wrecked,  the 
money  lost,  or  the  agent  be  dishonest,  and  in  any  event  valuable  time 
was  lost.  A  system  of  international  credit  sprung  into  being.  The 
American  merchant  put  his  money  into  an  American  bank,  and  the 
English  merchant  put  his  in  an  English  bank.  The  two  orders  were 
sent  by  cable.  The  goods  at  once  started  for  their  destination  and 
as  soon  as  they  were  started  each  merchant  could  go  to  the  bank 
and  get  his  money,  the  whole  operation  consuming  minutes  where  it 
had  required  weeks.  The  banks  simply  exchanged  the  balance  of 
cash  that  was  due  either  one  way  or  the  other. 

Although  fortunes  may  be  made  or  lost  by  the  brokers,  the  wheat 
is  really  brought  to  the  consumer  at  a  less  cost  than  would  be  possi- 
ble if  the  old  plan  of  direct  exchange  of  money  for  goods  were  to  be 
followed,  for  this  would  require  a  vastly  greater  number  of  transpor- 
tation systems,  and  the  extra  cost  would  have  to  be  borne  by  the 
producer  and  the  consumer.  The  middleman's  commissions  would 
increase  at  every  turn,  while  the  farmer  would  get  less  and  the  con- 
sumer pay  more  to  make  up  for  the  cost  of  the  unnecessary  trans- 
portation. 

Grain  elevators  are  enormous  buildings  economically  constructed 
for  the  reception,  handling,  and  storage  of  grain.  They  are  chiefly 
located  at  the  ports  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard. 
The  old  method  of  handling  grain  consisted  of  shoveling  into  bags 
the  grain  in  the  holds  of  ships,  men  carrying  the  bags  on  their  backs 
and  emptying  them  in  a  warehouse,  the  operation  requiring  several 
days.  Such  crude  methods  could  not  long  survive,  and  now  ma- 
chinery will  do  in  an  hour  what  men  could  not  do  in  a  week. 

The  Silo  plan  is  the  latest  for  grain  elevators.      The  building  is 


ADVANCE   IN   AGRICULTURAL    MACHINERY.  633 

made  high  and  the  body  filled  with  deep  six-sided  bins  (like  a  honey- 
comb) leaving  no  waste  space.  Each  bin  has  a  slanting  bottom  and 
a  valve  at  its  lowest  point  through  which  it  can  be  discharged  through 
a  spout  emptying  into  a  waiting  ship  or  car.  Beneath  the  bins  are 
cellars,  in  which  are  the  engines  and  part  of  the  conveying  machinery. 
Above  the  bins  is  the  machinery  room,  having  in  the  floor  openings 
through  which  wheat  is  discharged  into  the  bins.  Elevators  carry  the 
grain  up  to  this  floor  and  conveyers  take  it  to  the  proper  opening  and 
discharge  it  into  the  bin.  When  a  vessel  loaded  with  grain  is  brought 
alongside  this  monster  building,  ''legs"  having  within  them  an  ele- 
vator are  lowered  through  the  hatchway  and  thousands  of  tons  of 
grain  are  moved  in  a  short  time.  These  elevators  carry  the  grain  to 
a  tower,  where  it  is  cleaned,  weighed,  sampled,  and  its  quality  deter- 
mined. It  is  then  discharged  on  to  a  conveyer  which  takes  it  to  the 
mouth  of  the  bin  prepared  for  it. 

The  conveyer  is  a  broad  belt,  perhaps  18  inches  in  width,  running 
horizontally  and  passing  at  one  end  over  a  pulley  which  applies  the 
power  and  at  the  other  end  over  another  pulley  which  keeps  a  tension 
on  the  belt  so  great  that  it  will  not  sag.  The  belt  passes  over  nu- 
merous rollers,  so  arranged  as  to  cause  it  to  "trough"  and  prevent  the 
grain  from  spilling  over  at  the  side.  Such  a  conveyer  can  only  move 
the  grain  horizontally.  A  belt,  such  as  described,  running  at  a  speed 
of  8  feet  a  second  will  move  70  tons  of  grain  in  an  hour.  Elevator 
belts  to  carry  the  grain  upward  are  fitted  with  numerous  buckets. 
At  the  lower  end  they  pass  over  a  bottom  pulley  and,  as  they  turn 
right  side  up,  fill  themselves  with  grain.  At  the  upper  end  of  the 
journey  they  pass  over  a  top  pulley  and  are  turned  upside  down,  the 
speed  with  which  they  turn  throwing  out  the  grain  into  a  receptacle 
provided  for  it.  The  belt  and  bucket  elevator  can  move  about  150 
tons  an  hour. 

Pneumatic  elevators  can  be  made  of  almost  any  desired  capac- 


634          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

ity.  They  are  long,  flexible,  steel  tubes  made  up  of  numerous 
joints  of  tapering  tubing  and  covered  by  a  coat  of  rubber  to  render 
them  air  tight.  A  rubber  tube  would  not  answer,  for  the  air  within 
the  elevator  is  exhausted  until  the  outside  atmospheric  pressure  ex- 
ceeds that  within  by  5  pounds  per  square  inch,  enough  to  collapse  a 
rubber  tube,  while  the  friction  of  the  moving  particles  of  grain 
would  soon  wear  out  the  rubber.  Within  the  lower  end  of  the  tube 
is  a  sleeve  with  a  space  of  about  I  j£  inches  between  it  and  the  tube 
proper.  The  sleeve  extends  back  about  two  feet  from  the  nozzle. 
The  nozzle  is  plunged  into  a  mass  of  wheat,  the  air  inside  the  tube 
is  exhausted,  and  the  inrushing  air  as  it  passes  around  the  nozzle 
picks  up  the  grains  of  wheat  that  lie  in  the  way  and  carries  them  into 
the  tube,  and  the  current  is  so  strong  that  the  grain  hurries  along  out 
of  the  hold  of  the  ship  over  the  side  of  the  vessel  into  the  ware- 
house, and  falls  into  a  great  receiver,  the  bottom  of  which  is  made 
into  two  boxes  so  arranged  that  when  one  is  full  it  turns  over  and 
presents  an  empty  one  to  be  filled  and  does  not  allow  any  air  to  enter 
the  receiver.  In  turning,  each  full  box  deposits  its  load  in  the  bin 
of  the  weighing  machine.  A  tube  leads  out  of  the  top  of  the 
elevator  to  an  engine  which  exhausts  the  air  and  maintains  a  vacuum 
within  the  elevator,  5  pounds  below  atmospheric  pressure.  This 
system  requires  more  power  to  operate  it  than  the  belt  and  bucket 
plan,  but  handles  the  grain  much  faster,  takes  up  less  room  and  re- 
quires the  services  of  fewer  men ;  one  man  at  the  nozzle  being  all 
required  in  the  hold  of  the  vessel. 

The  New  Way.  A  little  more  than  a  generation  ago  if  a  Lon- 
don merchant  wanted  wheat,  he  sent  his  ship  to  the  Black  Sea  for  it 
and  congratulated  himself  if  the  round  trip  was  made  in  five  months 
and  a  cargo  of  300  tons  delivered.  To-day  he  can  send  his  order  by 
cable  and  within  a  week  a  ship  can  put  down  at  his  warehouse  a 
cargo  of  14,000  tons  of  American  wheat. 


ADVANCE   IN   AGRICULTURAL    MACHINERY.  635 

The  wheat  crop  of  the  world  for  1899  was  2,725,407,000  bushels, 
of  which  the  United  States  produced  20  per  cent.  ;  Russia,  17  per 
cent.;  British  India,  8  per  cent.;  France,  13  per  cent.;  Hungary, 
5  per  cent.  ;  Argentina,  3  per  cent.  ;  and  Canada,  2  per  cent.  Dur- 
ing the  year  1900  the  United  States  exported  barley,  corn,  oats,  rye, 
and  wheat,  ground  and  unground,  amounting  to  $250,786,080,  an 
amount  greater  than  the  whole  population  of  the  country  could 
produce  in  months  without  the  aid  of  machinery. 

COTTON  AND  COTTON  MANUFACTURING. 

Cotton  is  the  soft  downy  fiber  clinging  to  the  seeds  of  several 
species  of  plants  of  the  Mallow  family.  It  is  a  tropical  plant  but 
thrives  best  under  cultivation  in  a  temperate  climate.  In  the  United 
States,  two  species  are  grown. 

Sea-island,  long-staple,  or  black-seeded  cotton,  as  it  is  variously 
called,  thrives  best  in  a  salt  atmosphere  and  is  produced  chiefly  along 
the  coast  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  and  in  Egypt.  The 
blossom  is  of  a  rich  cream  color.  The  fiber  is  long  and  silky  and 
commands  a  good  price. 

Upland,  short  staple,  or  green-seeded  cotton,  is  the  kind  most 
widely  grown.  The  flower  is  a  pure  white,  but  turns  on  the  second 
day  to  red.  These  varieties  of  cotton  are  annual  plants  and  require 
for  their  successful  culture,  a  climate  free  from  frost  for  six  months, 
with  moderate  rain  during  the  growing  season  and  dry  sunny  weather 
when  the  plant  is  coming  to  maturity.  The  flowers  produce  "  bolls" 
containing  numerous  seeds  with  the  lint  or  fiber  adherent.  The  fiber 
contained  in  a  boll  weighs  about  half  as  much  as  the  seed.  The  yield 
in  the  Southern  states  ranges  from  one  fourth  of  a  bale  of  500  pounds 
to  two  bales  per  acre.  If  the  seed  is  returned  to  enrich  the  soil  and 
nothing  but  the  lint  removed  and  sold,  cotton  is  the  least  exhaustive 
of  any  crop  that  is  extensively  cultivated  in  the  United  States. 


636         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

There  are  other  varieties  of  cotton  that  are  perennials  of  a  larger 
growth,  as  tree  cotton,  but  these  produce  only  an  inferior  fiber  and 
are  not  of  much  importance. 

The  United  States  produces  rather  more  than  80  per  cent,  of  the 
cotton  of  the  world.  Cotton  sold  in  the  United  States  for  33  cents 
a  pound  when  Whitney  invented  the  cotton  gin  (1793).  The  lowest 
price  in  one  hundred  years  was  that  of  1845,  when  it  sold  in  New 
York  for  five  cents  per  pound.  In  1828  sea-island  cotton  brought 
$2  a  pound,  and  in  1864  short  staple  cotton  touched  $1.89,  due  to 
the  cotton  famine  caused  by  the  Civil  War.  Improved  methods  of 
cultivation  and  the  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  have  greatly  improved 
the  staple  and  increased  the  production,  while  the  by-products 
from  the  seed  have  helped  to  pay  the  cost  of  growing  the  crop.  All 
these  influences  have  tended  to  depress  the  price.  The  United 
States  crop  of  1899  was  the  largest  known,  reaching  11,274,840  bales 
of  about  500  pounds  each.  The  raw  cotton  exported  for  the  year 
ending  December,  1900,  was  valued  at  $314,252,080,  being  the  most 
important  export  of  the  United  States,  not  a  bad  showing  for  the 
industry  when  we  learn  that  in  1784  eight  bags  of  cotton  were  seized 
by  the  officials  at  Liverpool  on  the  ground  of  fraudulent  declaration 
of  origin,  because  it  was  certain  that  so  much  cotton  could  never 
have  come  from  America. 

The  Cotton  Gin.  It  does  not  often  fall  to  the  lot  of  one  person 
to  render  mankind  two  such  signal  services  as  did  Eli  Whitney  when 
he  introduced  the  modern  system  of  interchangeability  of  machine 
parts  and  invented  the  cotton  gin.  A  character  whose  inventions 
have  had  such  widespread  influence  may  merit  a  short  sketch. 

Eli  Whitney  was  born  Decembers,  1765,  at  Westborough,  Mass., 
and  at  an  early  age  displayed  mechanical  genius  of  a  high  order. 
Feeling  the  need  of  a  liberal  education  he  entered  Yale  College  in 
the  face  of  many  obstacles,  in  1789,  and  completed  his  college  course 


ADVANCE    IN   AGRICULTURAL    MACHINERY. 


637 


in  1/92.  In  the  autumn  of  that  year  he,  as  he  supposed,  was  en- 
gaged as  a  teacher  in  a  Georgia  family,  but  on  arriving  at  Savannah 
he  found  another  teacher  had  been  secured,  and  accepted  the  hospi- 
table offer  of  Mrs.  Greene,  the  widow  of  General  Nathaniel  Greene,  to 
make  her  house  his  temporary  home.  His  mechanical  skill  found 

0 

employment  in  making  toys  for  the 
children  and  some  embroidery  frames 
for  Mrs.  Greene.  Soon  after  his 
arrival  a  party  of  distinguished  gen- 
tlemen from  the  upland  region  came 
to  visit  Mrs.  Greene  and  were  la- 
menting the  lack  of  some  economical 
method  of  separating  the  lint  from 
the  seed  of  the  upland  cotton.  Re- 
moving the  seed  from  one  pound  of 
cotton  fiber  was  a  day's  work  for  one 
woman  and  until  a  cheaper  method 
could  be  found  cotton  could  not  be 
profitably  raised  in  the  upland  re- 
gions. Mrs.  Greene  declared  she 

knew  the  man  who  could  produce  the  desired  machine  and  introduced 
Mr.  Whitney  to  the  gentlemen.  Although  he  modestly  disclaimed 
any  belief  in  his  ability  to  solve  the  problem,  he  was  nevertheless  so 
much  interested  that  he  obtained  some  cotton  in  the  seed  and  began 
a  series  of  experiments,  although  much  handicapped  for  lack  of 
proper  materials  and  tools.  Success  crowned  his  efforts. 

Whitney's  Application  for  Patent.  Writing  November  24,  1793, 
to  Thomas  Jefferson,  Secretary  of  State,  and  making  application  for 
a  patent,  he  says:  — 

"  Within  about  ten  days  after  my  first  conception  of  the  plan,  I 
made  a  small,  though  imperfect,  model.  Experiments  with  this 


ELI  WHITNEY. 


638 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


encouraged  me  to  make  one  on  a  larger  scale,  but  the  extreme  diffi- 
culty of  procuring  workmen  and  proper  materials  in  Georgia  pre- 
vented my  completing  the  larger  one  until  some  time  in  April  last. 
This,  though  much  larger  than  my  first  attempt,  is  not  above  one 
third  as  large  as  the  machines  may  be  made  with  convenience.  The 
cylinder  is  only  two  feet  two  inches  in  length,  and  six  inches  in 
diameter.  It  is  turned  by  hand,  and  requires  the  strength  of  one  man 
to  keep  it  in  constant  motion. 

1 '  The  main  features  consist  of  a  cylinder,  generally  about  four 
feet  long  and  five  inches  in  diameter,  upon  which  is  set  a  series  of 

circular  saws,  about  half  an  inch 
apart,  and  projecting  about  two 
inches  above  the  surface  of  the  re- 
volving cylinder.  A  mass  of  cotton 
in  the  seed,  separated  from  the  cyl- 
inder by  steel  bars  of  grating,  is 
brought  into  contact  with  the  numer- 
ous teeth  on  the  cylinder.  These 
teeth  catch  the  cotton  while  playing 
between  the  bars,  which  allow  the 
lint  but  not  the  seed  to  pass.  Under- 
neath the  saws  is  a  set  of  stiff  brushes  on  another  cylinder  revolving 
in  the  opposite  direction,  which  brush  from  the  saw  teeth  the  lint 
which  they  have  just  pulled  from  the  seed.  The  remaining  feature 
is  a  revolving  fan  for  producing  a  current  of  air  to  throw  the  light 
and  downy  lint  thus  liberated  to  a  convenient  distance  from  the  re- 
volving saws  and  brushes." 

Whitney's  Struggles.  Phineas  Miller,  who  afterward  married 
Mrs.  Greene,  took  a  great  interest  in  Whitney's  machine  and  formed 
a  co-partnership  with  him.  Whitney  went  back  to  Connecticut  to 
establish  a  shop  for  the  manufacture  of  the  machines  and  obtain  'a 


WHITNEY'S  FIRST  COTTON  GIN. 


ADVANCE   IN   AGRICULTURAL    MACHINERY.  639 

patent,  but  rumors  of  his  wonderful  invention  had  spread  until  the 
greatest  excitement  prevailed,  and  one  night  the  building  in  which 
the  model  was  kept  was  broken  open,  the  machine  stolen,  and,  before 
Whitney  could  obtain  his  patent,  machines  with  slight  changes  from 
the  original  were  in  widespread  operation.  A  patent  was  issued  to 
him  in  1794  and  suits  for  infringements  were  at  once  begun,  but  it 
was  almost  impossible  to  find  a  jury  in  the  cotton  region  that  would 
render  him  a  verdict  in  accordance  with  the  facts,  and  it  was  only 
after  many  years  of  expensive  litigation  that  Whitney  could  obtain 
anything  like  justice.  The  United  States  Court  of  Georgia,  Decem- 
ber, 1807,  rendered  a  decision  in  his  favor  and  the  judge  said:— 

"With  regard  to  the  utility  of  this  discovery,  the  Court  would 
deem  it  a  waste  of  time  to  dwell  long  upon  this  topic.  Is  there  a 
man  who  hears  us  who  has 
not  experienced  its  util- 
ity? The  whole  interior 
of  the  Southern  states 
was  languishing,  and  its 
inhabitants  emigrating  for 
want  of  some  object  to 
engage  their  attention  and 
employ  their  industry, 
when  the  invention  of 

this     machine     at      once 

A  MODERN  COTTON  GIN. 
opened     views    to    them, 

which  set  the  whole  country  in  active  motion.  From  childhood  to 
age  it  has  presented  to  us  a  lucrative  employment.  Individuals  who 
were  depressed  with  poverty  and  sunk  in  idleness  have  suddenly  risen 
to  wealth  and  respectability.  Our  debts  have  been  paid  off.  Our 
capitals  have  increased,  and  our  lands  trebled  themselves  in  value. 
We  cannot  express  the  weight  of  the  obligation  which  the  country 
owes  to  this  invention.  The  extent  of  it  cannot  now  be  seen." 


640  •         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

By  the  time  Whitney  had  secured  favorable  decisions  his  patent 
had  nearly  expired,  and  an  application  made  for  renewal  in  1812  was 
refused.  South  Carolina  voted  to  buy  the  patent  right  for  that  state 
for  $50,000.  North  Carolina  laid  a  tax  for  five  years  on  cotton  gins 
working  within  its  borders  and  turned  the  proceeds  over  to  Whitney 
after  deducting  the  expense  of  collection.  Tennessee  passed  an  act 
taxing  cotton  gins  but  soon  repealed  it.  The  cotton  gin  brought 
Whitney  fame  but  little  fortune,  for  the  money  received  was  swal- 
lowed up  in  defending  his  patent.  He  would  have  been  better  off 
financially  had  he  never  invented  it  but  devoted  his  attention  to 
those  other  mechanical  pursuits  where  he  afterward  exhibited  such 
great  talent. 

The  cotton  crop  of  the  United  States  for  1899  amounted  to  u,- 
274,840  bales,  or  about  5,637,420,000  pounds.  The  seeds  were  all 
separated  from  this  by  the  cotton  gin.  Had  the  hand  labor  method 
been  employed  it  would  have  required  the  services  of  more  than  18,- 
000,000  slave  women  for  300  working  days.  A  single  cotton  gin 
performs  the  work  of  thousands  of  pairs  of  hands.  Does  the  world 
owe  anything  to  an  inventor  who  has  made  possible  so  great  an  in- 
dustry? 

Textile  Machinery.  The  person  who  invented  the  process  of 
spinning  cotton  lived  so  long  ago  that  his  name  is  not  recorded  in 
history.  Egyptian  mummies  were  wrapped  in  cloths  of  the  finest 
linen,  though  cotton  was  sometimes  employed  and  was  also  used  for 
the  garments  of  the  priests.  The  natives  of  Africa,  Asia,  and 
America  had  mastered  the  art  of  making  cloth  from  the  fibers  of 
cotton  long  before  the  Europeans  knew  that  such  a  plant  as  cotton 
existed. 

The  distaff  and  spindle  were  the  instruments  used  for  spinning 
for  centuries.  The  spindle  was  at  first  simply  a  stick  with  one  end 
split  and  the  other  end  held  in  the  hand.  A  few  fibers  were  twisted 


ADVANCE    IN   AGRICULTURAL    MACHINERY.  641 

a  cord  with  the  fingers  and  the  end  of  the  cord  inserted  in  the 
cleft.  The  distaff  was  another  stick  about  which  the  raw  material 
was  wrapped.  That  portion  of  the  fiber  between  the  distaff  and 
spindle  was  twisted  and  then  wound  upon  the  spindle,  a  new  portion 
of  untwisted  fiber  unwound  from  the  distaff,  and  the  operation  re- 
peated. Although  the  distaff  and  spindle  were  replaced  by  the  spin- 
ning wheel  during  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  of  England,  yet  they 
were  in  use  in  northern  Scotland  as  late  as  1817. 

The  spinning  wheel  consisted  of  a  horizontal  spindle  made  to  re- 
volve rapidly  by  a  band  from  the  large  wheel  turned  by  the  hand  or 
foot.  It  is  perhaps  of  Hindoo  origin.  In  the  spinning  wheel  the  end 
of  the  cord  was  fastened  to  the  base  of  the  spindle  and  the  "  roving" 
(untwisted  fiber)  held  at  such  an  angle  that  it  'would  wind  about  the 
spindle  in  spirals  out  to  the  end,  where  it  was  held  while  a  few  turns 
were  given  to  the  hand  wheel  which  revolved  the  spindle  and  twisted 
the  thread.  The  wheel  was  then  stopped,  turned  back  a  little,  the 
long  spirals  unwound,  and  the  finished  thread  wound  on  the  base  of 
the  spindle,  the  last  few  inches  of  it  running  out  in  spirals  again  to  the 
end  of  the  spindle,  where  the  operation  was  repeated.  Such  was  the 
spinning  wheel  of  our  great-grandmothers  and  the  highest  develop- 
ment of  the  hand  power  machine,  requiring  the  constant  attention  of 
one  person  to  spin  one  thread.  And  so  rapid  has  been  the  progress 
in  textile  machinery  that  the  spinning  wheel  and  the  hand  loom  are 
not  yet  obsolete. 

Thousands  of  patents  have  been  issued  in  England  and  the 
United  States  for  textile  machinery,  and  among  so  many  space  will 
permit  .but  the  briefest  mention  of  a  few  that  have  been  epoch  mak- 
ing in  their  influence.  A  strange  fatality  for  many  years  seemed  to 
accompany  them,  and  Whitney's  experience  with  his  cotton  gin  was 
no  exception  to  the  common  fate  of  inventors  of  cotton  manufactur- 
ing machinery. 


642          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

The  spinning  jenny  was  invented  by  James  Hargreaves,  of 
England,  in  1763.  Hargreaves  was  a  poor  weaver  with  a  wife  and 
seven  children  depending  upon  him.  Brooding  at  home  over  his  lot 
one  day,  the  spinning  wheel  was  overturned  while'  in  operation  and 
he  noticed  that  it  continued  to  revolve.  He  seized  the  Droving" 
and  fed  it  on  the  spindle.  The  spindle  did  its  work  in  a  vertical 
position.  He  then  made  a  rude  machine  consisting  of  eight  vertical 
spindles  set  in  a  frame.  The  rovings  were  wound  upon  "bobbins" 
and  carried  through  a  clasp  controlled  by  the  left  hand  of  the  opera- 
tor, thence  to  the  spindles.  With  his  right  hand  he  turned  a  wheel 
having  a  belt  running  from  it  that  turned  all  the  spindles.  He  was 
able  to  make  eight  threads  within  the  time  formerly  required  to 
make  one,  and  improvements  raised  its  efficiency  to  120  times  that 
of  the  spinning  wheel.  His  neighbors,  hearing  of  it,  attacked  his 
cottage,  smashed  the  machine,  and  threatened  to  kill  him  if  he  ever 
made  another.  He  took  out  a  patent  in  1770,  but  because  he  had 
sold  some  machines  before  his  patent  was  taken  out  the  title  was  in- 
validated and  the  invention  became  public  property,  while  Har- 
greaves struggled  on  in  penury. 

The  fly  shuttle,  by  which  a  weaver  was  able  with  less  labor  to 
double  his  production,  was  invented  by  John  Kay  in  1733,  but 
everywhere  that  he  tried  to  put  it  in  operation  he  found  the  work- 
men opposed  to  him.  In  his  native  town  a  mob  broke  into  his 
house,  destroyed  his  furniture  and  barn,. and  would  have  killed  him 
had  not  friends  helped  to  conceal  him.  He  died  in  France  in  ex- 
treme poverty. 

The  spinning  frame,  throstle,  or  water  frame,  as  it  is  variously 
called,  was  patented  by  Richard  Arkwright  in  1769.  This  was  a 
device  for  spinning  with  rollers,  the  "  roving  "  passing  in  succession 
through  pairs  of  rollers ;  the  forward  pair  had  a  higher  motion  than 
those  behind,  and  so  drew  out  the  roving  gradually  and  regularly 


ADVANCE   IN   AGRICULTURAL    MACHINERY.  643 

and  made  a  smooth,  even  thread.  Deterred  by  the  strong  feeling 
against  invention  of  labor-saving  machinery  in  Lancashire,  he  went 
to  Nottingham  and  started  a  factory  on  a  small  scale  for  the  spinning 
of  hosiery  yarns,  but  he  had  to  fight  the  whole  trade  and  every  pos- 
sible prejudice  that  could  be  incited  against  his  machine.  The 
authorities  put  a  double  tax  on  cloth  made  from  the  new  yarn  and 
he  was  involved  in  numerous  costly  lawsuits  in  defense  of  his  pat- 
ents. His  buildings  were  burned,  but  his  improvements  enabled 
him  to  produce  yarn  of  such  a  superior  quality  that  he  afterward 
acquired  command  of  the  market  and  was  knighted  by  George  III. 

It  has  been  stated  that  Arkwright  is  improperly  credited  with  the 
honor  of  the  invention  of  the  water  frame  and  that  patents  were  is- 
sued by  the  English  government  in  1738  for  the  same  invention  to 
one  Lewis  Paul,  who  stated  that  his  partner,  John  Wyatt,  was  the 
true  inventor,  for  whom  he,  Paul,  was  acting  as  attorney. 

The  spinning  mule,  invented  by  Samuel  Crompton,  in  1779,  com- 
bines the  invention  of  Arkwright's  drawing  rolls  with  the  upright 
spindles  of  Hargreaves.  The  spindles  are  mounted  on  a  carriage  that 
moves  back  and  forth  at  some  distance  from  the  drawing  rolls,  which  are 
held  in  a  stationary  frame.  As  the  carriage  travels  back  and  forth  it 
simultaneously  twists  the  thread  and  draws  the  rovings,  producing 
threads  of  great  fineness  and  uniformity,  for  one  of  the  special 
features  of  the  machine  is  the  stretching  and  drawing  out  of  the 
thicker  parts  of  the  thread  down  to  a  uniform  size.  The  news  of 
Crompton's  machine  spreading  abroad  incited  a  riot,  and  his  model 
had  to  be  taken  to  pieces  and  hidden  away  in  a  garret.  When  after 
a  time  he  got  one  of  his  machines  at  work  the  secret  was  stolen  from 
him  and  became  public  property.  He  assigned  his  patent  to  the 
manufacturers  of  Lancashire  upon  their  promise  to  take  up  a  sub- 
scription for  him,  and  the  subscription  netted  him  about  $300, — for 
something  that  added  millions  of  dollars  to  the  wealth  of  Lancashire. 


644  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

The  government,  in  tardy  recognition  of  his  services,  granted  him 
£5000  in  1812,  but  he  was  then  approaching  old  age,  the  money  was 
lost  in  unfortunate  investments,  and  he  was  saved  from  destitution 
in  his  last  years  only  by  a  public  subscription. 

The  power  loom  was  invented  in  1785  by  the  Rev.  Edward 
Cartwright,  who  also  invented  a  wool-combing  machine.  "  For  years 
he  had  to  abandon  his  loom  because  of  the  threatening  attitude  of 
the  working  people  toward  it,  and  his  wool-combing  inventions  cost 
him  so  much  and  were  pirated  to  such  an  extent  that  he  was  brought 
to  the  verge  of  ruin.  Parliament  in  1809  made  him  a  grant  of 
£10,000,  which  provided  for  the  comfort  of  his  declining  years." 

First  Mills  in  America.  Prior  to  1790  the  clothing  in  America 
consisted  almost  entirely  of  homespun  woolen  and  linen,  for  cotton 
and  silk  were  imported  luxuries  which  only  a  very  few  could  afford. 
Great  Britain's  laws  for  a  long  time  forbade  the  exportation  of 
machinery  or  drawings  from  which  the  machinery  could  be  made,  and 
for  many  years  the  emigration  of  skilled  workmen  was  prohibited. 
While  these  laws  were  in  operation  Samuel  Slater  came  from  England 
to  America  in  1789,  disguised  as  a  farm  laborer,  but  bringing  in  his 
head  the  plans  of  the  first  successful  cotton  working  machinery  ever 
set  up  in  America.  Aided  by  Moses  Brown,  a  Quaker  of  Providence, 
Rhode  Island,  who  furnished  the  money,  the  first  cotton  mill  in 
America  fitted  with  Arkwright  machinery  was  built  by  Slater  at 
Pawtucket,  Rhode  Island,  in  1798. 

In  a  modern  cotton  mill  the  cotton  from  the  bale  passes  through 
a  complicated  process  before  it  leaves  the  loom.  It  is  beaten  to 
divest  it  of  all  sand  and  dirt,  then,  while  finely  divided,  blown  against 
a  wire  gauze  belt  which  catches  the  fibers  but  allows  the  dirt  to  pass 
through.  This  operation  is  repeated  until  the  cotton  is  thoroughly 
cleansed.  It  then  passes  through  the  picker,  where  all  foreign  sub- 
stances are  removed.  It  is  again  finely  divided  and  blown  against  a 


ADVANCE    IN   AGRICULTURAL    MACHINERY.  645 

wire  belt  which  carries  it  to  the  carding  machine.  The  carding  ma- 
chine is  a  large  broad  wheel  having  its  surface  thickly  set  with  wire 
teeth.  These  catch  the  layer  of  cotton  as  it  is  fed  in  at  one  side  and 
carry  it  in  and  over  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  machine,  but  on  its 
way  the  cotton  is  subjected  to  the  action  of  four  small  rollers  armed 
with  wire  teeth  and  revolving  in  the  opposite  direction  to  the  large 
wheel.  When  the  cotton  makes  its  exit  from  the  machine  the  layer 
is  about  T<U  as  thick  as  it  was  when  it  entered,  and  all  the  fibers  lie 
parallel  to  the  long  axis  of  the  layer.  The  layer  is  then  fed  into  a 
trumpet-shaped  can  and  literally  "comes  out  of  the  small  end  of  the 
horn"  as  a  round,  loose,  and  slightly  twisted  rope,  roll,  or  roving. 
As  a  roving  it  passes  to  the  drawing  frames,  which  reduce  it  in  size 
and  deliver  it  to  a  machine  which  draws  it  to  the  required  size  and 
gives  it  more  twist.  Issuing  from  this  machine  it  is  called  the 
"  finished  roving,"  and  is  ready  for  the  mule,  which  imparts  to  it 
the  final  twist  and  makes  it  ready  for  the  loom  unless  a  thread  is 
required  of  two  or  more  strands,  in  which  case  it  passes  through  the 
additional  process  of  ring  spinning  before  it  is  ready  to  be  woven. 

The  Growth  of  the  Industry.  In  1790  it  required  five  days' 
work  on  the  part  of  a  slave  woman  to  remove  the  seed  from  enough 
cotton  to  make  a  yard  of  calico,  and  the  only  use  for  the  seed  was 
to  enrich  the  soil.  To-day  the  by-products  from  the  seed  more  than 
pay  the  cost  of  ginning.  In  1790  there  were  only  70  cotton  spindles 
at  work  in  factories  in  the  United  States.  A  hundred  years  later 
there  were  14,188,103,  affording  employment  to  many  thousands  of 
operatives  and  turning  out  a  product  valued  at  $267,981,724.  In 
1800  the  price  of  a  pound  of  cotton  yarn  was  about  $1.25.  For  the 
last  decade  it  has  ranged  from  1314  cents  to  i8j^  cents.  Statistics 
taken  at  the  close  of  the  century  show  for  the  last  decade  an  increase 
of  nearly  50  per  cent,  in  the  number  of  spindles  and  more  than  50 
per  cent,  in  the  number  of  cotton  looms  in  operation. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 

OPTICS —  Spectroscope  and  What  It  Tells  of  the  Constitution  of  Heavenly  Bodies  — 
The  Telescope  and  its  Revelations — Refracting  and  Reflecting  Telescopes  —  Great  Tele- 
scopes—  Microscope  and  the  Wonders  It  Reveals  —  What  It  has  done  for  Civilization  — 
MECHANICAL  PROGRESS  IN  SURGERY — Old  Method  and  the  New  —  Marvelous  Surgical 
Operations  —  Bacteria  —  What  They  are  and  What  They  do  —  Skin  Grafting  —  Surgery  in 
Cancer —  Operations  on  the  Eye —  Vaccination  —  HOUSEKEEPERS'  DEBT  TO  INVENTION  — 
Housekeeping  a  Century  ago  —  Recent  Improvements  in  the  Household  —  Labor-Saving 
Devices  for  the  Preparation  of  Food  —  Sewing  Machines  —  UTILIZATION  OF  WASTE  PROD- 
UCTS—  By- Produces  of  the  Slaughter  House  —  What  Becomes  of  the  Steer — Cotton  Seed 
audits  By- Products  —  Coal  Tar  and  its  Marvels  —  Petroleum  and  its  Derivatives  —  Blast 
Furnaces — Coke  Furnaces — How  TO  MAKE  AND  PATENT  AN  INVENTION — Profitable 
Inventions — Civilization's  Debt  to  the  Inventor — MACHINERY  LABOR  AND  WEALTH  — 
Revolution  in  the  Industrial  World  —  Does  Machinery  Displace  Labor — Inventions  Create 
Occupation  —  Inventions  Increase  Production  —  Relation  of  Machinery  to  Wages  — 
Progress  Entails  Loss  to  Capital  —  Machinery  Increases  Wealth  —  Civilization's  Debt  to 
Machinery. 

OPTICS. 

The  Spectroscope.  The  revelations  of  the  spectroscope  are  per- 
haps received  by  the  popular  mind  with  more  incredulity  than  any 
other  achievement  of  science.  Spectral  phenomena  seen  in  rainbow 
tints,  the  sparkle  of  jewels,  the  flash  of  cut  glass,  and  the  changing 
hues  of  sunset  were  familiar  long  before  Newton  explained  their 
causes  to  the  Royal  Society  in  1675.  He  admitted  a  ray  of  sunlight 
through  a  small  round  hole  into  a  darkened  chamber  and  placed  in 
its  path  a  prism  whose  refracting  power  spread  the  rays  out  like  a  fan 
and  exhibited  its  gorgeous  color  ranging  from  red,  orange,  yellow, 
green,  blue,  indigo,  to  violet. 

For  127  years  no  progress  was  made  in  that  branch  of  knowl- 
edge, but  in  1802  Dr.  Wollaston  admitted  the  light  through  a  nar- 
row vertical  slit  and  spread  the  spectrum  out  in  ribbon  form,  its 
many  lines  forming  images  of  the  slit.  He  discovered  that  the  rib- 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


647 


bon  of  light  was  crossed  in  various  places  by  dark  lines,  but  the  fact 
excited  no  interest  at  the  time. 

Fraunhofer,  a  German  optician,  in  1814  rediscovered  the  dark 
lines.  He  threw  the  spectrum  on  a  screen  and,  examining  it  with  a 
telescope,  was  able  to  count  590  lines,  map  them,  and  designate  the 
most  important  by  letters  of  the  alphabet. 


WOLLASTON'S  EXPERIMENT  No.  i  WITH  THE  PRISM. 

The  importance  of  the  spectroscope  began  to  dawn  upon  the 
minds  of  scientists.  In  1842  Prof.  John  W.  Draper  of  New  York 
modified  Fraunhofer's  spectroscope,  cast  the  lines  upon  sensitized 
plates  and  made  photographs  of  them,  but,  more  important  still, 
passing  to  the  examination  of  spectra  of  incandescent  bodies,  he  dis- 
covered many  fundamental  principles  underlying  that  branch  of 
knowledge.  Draper's  discoveries  enabled  the  astronomer  to  tell 


648  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

from  the  spectrum  of  a  heavenly  body  whether  it  was  solid  or 
gaseous. 

Kirchhoff  and  Bunsen.  Improvements  in  instruments  were  con- 
stantly made,  and  in  1859  two  German  investigators,  Kirchhoff  and 
Bunsen,  added  so  much  to  the  knowledge  of  the  spectrum  that  new 
metals  were  discovered  by  it  and  the  identity  of  many  of  the 
chemical  elements  of  the  heavenly  bodies  were  revealed,  for  "each 
element  gives  a  peculiar  spectrum  distinguishable  from  all  others  in 
the  number,  color,  breadth,  and  grouping  of  its  lines.  So  distinct 
are  they  that  when  a  compound  is  vaporized  all  its  elements  are  at 
once  disclosed.  If  several  substances  are  volatilized  together  all  the 
spectrum  can  be  identified."  * 

The  delicacy  of  the  operations  now  performed  with  the  spec- 
troscope almost  surpasses  belief.  It  will  easily  detect  1-18000000  of 
a  grain  of  sodium,  and  a  blood  stain  fifty  years  old  containing  only 
i-iooo  part  of  a  grain  of  blood  is  revealed  in  its  characteristic  lines. 
In  Bessemer  steel  making  the  operation  lasts  about  20  minutes,  dur- 
ing which  time  the  atmospheric  oxygen  burns  away  the  carbon  and 
silicon  from  the  molten  cast  iron  and  the  heated  gases  issue  in  a 
flame  from  the  mouth  of  the  converter.  If  the  process  is  stopped 
ten  seconds  too  early  or  ten  seconds  too  late,  the  whole  mass  is 
spoiled.  The  flame  changes  during  the  process  and  the  spectroscope 
reveals  the  exact  moment  at  which  the  carbon  disappears  and  the 
process  must  be  stopped. 

The  grating  spectroscope  is  now  largely  used  in  place  of  a  prism, 
for  it  affords  a  constant  standard  of  reference  and  "  the  normal  solar 
spectrum  "  used  as  a  standard  is  the  spectroscope  of  the  sun  mapped 
with  the  various  dark  lines  in  the  position  shown  by  a  grating  spec- 
troscope. The  production  of  a  grating  spectroscope  is  a  matter  of 
astonishing  mechanical  delicacy.  Such  a  spectroscope  has  a  concave 


*  Youmans'  "  Chemistry." 


MISCELLANEOUS.  649 

spherical  surface  of  speculum  metal  on  which  are  ruled  for  an  area  of 
5  J^  inches  by  2  inches,  from  14,000  to  20,000  lines  to  the  inch.  The 
delicacy  of  such  lines  can  be  better  imagined  than  understood.  It 
may  take  months  to  make  a  perfect  screw  for  the  machine  which 
does  the  ruling,  and  often  a  year  is  spent  in  search  of  a  diamond  fit 
for  the  delicate  task  of  cutting  the  lines.  With  such  an  instrument 
the  solar  spectrum  can  be  extended  several  areas  and  thousands  of 
Fraunhofer  lines  rendered  visible  and  photographed. 

The  Telescope.  Historians  are  not  agreed  as  to  who  invented 
the  telescope.  Certain  it  is  that  Hans  Lipperhay,  of  Holland,  ap- 
plied about  the  year  1608  for  a  patent  for  such  an  instrument,  and 
the  Dutch  authorities  tried  to  conceal  the  secret  of  its  construction. 

The  telescope  performed  its  first  important  work  in  the  hands  of 
Galileo,  who  hearing  of  the  Dutch  instrument  was  able  by  his  own 
mechanical  skill  and  knowledge  of  optics  to  construct  a  better  one, 
and  with  it  discovered  the  satellites  of  Jupiter,  the  crescent  phases 
of  Venus,  the  rings  of  Saturn,  the  mountains  of  the  moon,  and  the 
spots  on  the  sun's  face.  ''The  invention  of  the  telescope  created 
descriptive  astronomy.  Inquiries  into  the  nature  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  were  wholly  inspired  by  it ;  it  disclosed  the  amazing  multitude 
of  the  stars  and  opened  endless  vistas  of  research.  Thus  amid  a 
tumult  of  applause  the  telescopic  investigation  of  the  heavens 
began." 

The  first  telescopes  were  crude  affairs  with  an  object  glass  of  a  sin- 
gle small  lens  giving  a  low  power.  When,  to  increase  their  power,  the 
lenses  were  made  larger,  "chromatic  aberration  "  was  encountered : 
i.  e.,  the  lenses  were  not  able  to  bring  to  an  exact  focus  the  different 
colored  light  waves,  and  an  image  in  distorted  colors  appeared. 

The  achromatic  lens,  consisting  of  a  lens  of  crown  glass,  convex 
on  each  side,  in  front  of  a  concave  lens  of  flint  glass,  overcame  the 
most  of  that  trouble.  "The  crown  lens,  being  convex,  converges 


650          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

the  blue  rays  more  than  it  does  the  red  ones,  while  the  flint  glass,  be- 
ing concave,  tends  in  an  equal  degree  to  diverge  the  blue  rays  away 
from  the  axis  more  than  the  red  ones,  so  that  the  combined  effect  of 
the  two  is  to  bring  the  rays  to  a  focus."  No  lens  yet  made  of  crown 
and  flint  glass  has  succeeded  in  bringing  all  the  rays  to  one  focus. 
The  violet,  being  the  most  easily  refracted,  come  to  a  focus  nearest 
the  object  glass;  the  red  being  the  least  refrangible,  are  brought  to  a 
focus  farthest  from  the  object  glass.  The  violet  end  of  the  spectrum 
is  most  potent  in  photography,  so  lenses  which  are  best  for  seeing 
are  not  best  for  photography  and  are  corrected  for  that  purpose  by  a 
third  lens. 

Two  forms  of  telescopes  are  employed :  the  refracting  and  the 
reflecting.  A  refracting  telescope  is  one  in  which  a  system  of  lenses 
receives  the  rays  of  light  and  brings  them  to  a  focus.  A  reflecting 
telescope  is  one  in  which  the  rays  of  light  are  brought  to  a  focus  by 
being  reflected  from  the  surface  of  a  concave  polished  reflector. 

The  difficulty  of  manufacturing  lenses  led  Herschel  in  1779  to 
build  his  reflecting  telescope,  with  which  in  1781  he  discovered  the 
planet  Uranus.  Encouraged  by  his  success,  he,  in  1789,  built  his 
great  reflecting  telescope  with  which  his  famous  catalogue  of  stars  and 
star  clusters  was  made.  The  advantages  of  the  reflecting  telescope 
are  that  color  distortion  does  not  exist  because  all  rays  are  re- 
flected from  a  polished  surface  at  the  same  angle  in  which  they  strike 
it ;  so  in  theory  there  is  no  limit  to  its  size,  but  there  are  great 
mechanical  difficulties  in  its  construction,  and  if  the  mirrors  are  large 
they  are  apt  to  be  distorted  by  their  own  weight. 

Refracting  telescopes  are  now  most  widely  used.  The  largest 
reflecting  telescope  was  that  of  the  Earl  of  Rosse,  built  in  Ireland 
1842-1845,  having  a  diameter  of  six  feet,  focal  length  of  54  feet,  and 
costing  $100,000. 

The  Lick  telescope,  made  by  Alvin  Clark  and  Sons,  was  at  the 


MISCELLANEOUS.  651 

time  of  its  manufacture  (1888)  the  largest  of  its  kind.  For  the 
object  glass  nineteen  discs  were  made,  tested,  and  discarded  by  Feil 
and  Mantois  of  Paris,  before  a  perfect  one  was  found.  The  object 
glass  has  a  clear  aperture  of  36  inches  and  weighs,  in  its  cell,  about 
600  pounds.  The  crown-glass  lens  is  .6  inch  thick  on  the  edge  and 
1.91  inch  thick  in  the  center.  The  flint  lens  is  1.65  inch  thick  on 
the  edge  and  .93  inch  thick  at  the  center.  The  lenses  are  not  in 
contact  but  are  set  6.5  inches  apart.  The  extra  lens  for  photographic 
work  is  33  inches  in  diameter. 

The  telescope  rests  on  a  solid  foundation  of  masonry,  forming  the 
tomb  of  its  donor,  James  Lick,  who  at  his  death  left  $700,000  in 
trust  for  "an  instrument  that  should  be  superior  to  and  more  power- 
ful than  any  telescope  made."  He  selected  as  the  site  Mount  Ham- 
ilton, 4209  feet  above  the  sea  and  26  miles  east  of  San  Jose, 
California,  where  the  air  is  so  clear  that  for  many  months  of  the  year 
the  stars  do  not  twinkle.  To  make  a  road  from  San  Jose  to  the 
observatory  cost  $78,000;  the  object  glass  cost  $50,000;  the  photo- 
graphic corrector,  $13,000;  the  mounting  of  the  telescope,  $45,000; 
the  dome,  $35,000;  and  the  observatory  complete,  $600,000. 

The  Yerkes  telescope,  given  to  the  University  of  Chicago  by 
Charles  T.  Yerkes  of  that  city,  has  a  focal  length  of  64  feet,  with  an 
object  glass  40  inches  in  diameter,  made  by  Alvin  Clark  and  Sons. 
This  was  the  glass  exhibited  at  the  Chicago  Exposition  in  1893. 
The  Grand  Equatorial  of  Gruenewald  has  an  object  glass  42  inches  in 
diameter. 

The  greatest  telescope  ever  made  is  that  of  the  Grand  Luen- 
ette  of  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1900.  This  has  a  tube  197  feet  long 
with  an  object  glass  slightly  over  48  inches  in  diameter.  The  lenses 
cost  $120,000  and  the  entire  cost  of  the  instrument  is  said  to  have 
been  more  than  $400,000.  In  this  glass  a  decided  innovation  was 
introduced.  The  tube  is  supported  in  a  horizontal  position  on 


652          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

solid  pillars.  A  huge  reflecting  mirror  with  regulating  machinery, 
called  a  siderostat,  is  placed  near  the  object  glass  and  reflects  through 
the  lens  the  image  of  the  object  to  be  viewed.  The  mirror  alone 
weighs  nearly  five  tons  and  is  6^  feet  in  diameter,  with  its  fittings 
weighing  33,000  pounds.  The  whole  floats  in  a  bath  of  mercury. 

The  Microscope.  Awe-inspiring  and  magnificent  as  are  the 
wonders  of  the  heavens  when  revealed  by  the  telescope,  the  micro- 
scope makes  us  acquainted  with  infinitesimal  life  no  less  wonderful. 
The  microscope,  as  a  single  lens,  appears  to  have  antedated  the 
telescope.  We  know  the  magnifying  glass  was  known  to  the  Assyr- 
ians and  Egyptians,  for  the  excavations  at  Nineveh  revealed  a  care- 
fully ground  lens  of  rock  crystal.  In  Europe  it  was  known  and 
used  by  Zacharias  Jansens  and  his  son  as  early  as  i$9°>  and  the 
single  lens  in  the  hands  of  Leeuwenhoeck  and  others  made  discov- 
eries of  no  small  importance. 

The  compound  microscope  was  invented  by  Farncelli  in  1624. 
Like  the  users  of  the  telescope,  the  first  investigators  with  the  com- 
pound microscope  were  troubled  by  chromatic  aberration,  but  the 
achromatic  objective  discovered  by  Euler  in  1776  was  applied  in 
1829  by  Lister,  and  an  instrument  made  possible  that  now  combines 
the  contributions  of  many  inventors  and  is  a  triumph  of  the 
optician's  art. 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  benefit  man  has  derived  from  the 
microscope.  Biology,  botany,  histology,  bacteriology,  embryology, 
geology,  and  chemistry,  all  are  heavily  indebted  to  it.  It  figures  in 
nearly  every  department  of  the  useful  arts  and  has  revolutionized 
our  understanding  of  the  laws  of  life  and  diseases. 

The  surgeon's  debt  to  the  microscope  can  hardly  be  over- 
estimated. It  is  by  the  studies  in  fermentation  of  Liebig  and  Pas- 
teur, supplemented  by  Lord  Lister's  work,  that  surgery  has  been  de- 
prived of  a  horror  second  only  to  that  banished  by  anaesthetics.  Dr. 


MISCELLANEOUS.  653 

William  Keen  says  of  sights  witnessed  in  his  early  surgical  days : 
"  The  parched  lips  of  the  poor  sufferer,  tossing  uneasily  during  sleep- 
less nights,  wounds  reeking  with  pus,  and  patients  dying  by  scores 
from  blood  poisoning,  from  erysipelas,  from  tetanus,  from  gangrene, 
were  only  too  familiar  sights  in  the  preantiseptic  days.  Before  Lis- 
ter's day  (1876)  these  were  the  dread  attendants  at  almost  every 
operation.  To  open  the  head,  the  abdomen,  or  the  chest  thirty  years 
ago  was  almost  equivalent  to  signing  the  death  warrant  of  a  patient." 
To-day,  in  obscure  diseases  of  the  brain  or  the  abdomen,  if  the  sur- 
geon is  uncertain  as  to  the  danger  within,  he  deliberately  opens  either 
cavity  to  find  out  the  exact  state  of  affairs.  The  revelations  of  the 
microscope  that  made  "possible  antiseptic  surgery  are  estimated  to 
have  reduced  the  mortality  of  surgical  operations  from  33^3  per  cent, 
to  less  than  5  per  cent. 

The  Microscope  Created  the  Science  of  Bacteriology.  With  it 
Davaine,  of  France,  in  1863  discovered  characteristic  microscopic 
bodies  in  the  disease  of  anthrax.  These  he  named  from  their  shape, 
bacteria,  or  little  rods,  and  gave  the  name  to  the  science. 

In  1 88 1  Ogston  of  Aberdeen  discovered  the  bacteria  of  pus;  in 
1882  Koch  of  Berlin,  the  bacillus  of  tuberculosis;  in  1883  Febleisen 
discovered  that  of  erysipelas;  and  in  1887  Nicolaier  and  Rosenbaum 
discovered  the  cause  of  lockjaw.  With  the  microscope  the  physician 
is  able  to  discover  in  the  morbid  constituents  of  the  urine,  many  un- 
erring evidences  of  diseases,  which  only  a  few  years  ago  were  a  sealed 
book  to  him.  Examination  of  the  blood  puts  him  in  possession  of 
other  evidence  no  less  important. 

As  a  detector  of  crime  it  has  aided  in  sending  many  a  criminal 
to  his  just  punishment.  A  drop  of  blood  or  a  single  hair  is  by  its  aid 
identified  and  made  to  furnish  incontrovertible  evidence.  Its  search- 
ing powers  render  futile  the  finest  work  of  the  cleverest  counterfeiter. 
It  has  taught  us  how  to  deal  with  the  blight  of  grapes  and  saved 


654          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

thousands  of  dollars  to  the  vineyards  of  France,  Germany,  and 
America.  It  is  indispensable  to  the  chemist,  the  botanist,  the  steel- 
maker and  the  detective,  and  its  range  is  so  wide  and  its  uses  so 
numerous  that  it  would  require  a  volume  to  catalogue  its  discoveries. 

MECHANICAL    PROGRESS    IN    SURGERY. 
BY  WILLARD  SMITH,  M.D. 

Painless  Surgery.  October  16,  1846,  an  experiment  was  made  in 
the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital  at  Boston.  The  result  of  that 
experiment,  as  recorded  on  a  monument,  reads  thus:  - 

"William  T.  G.  Morton,  inventor  and  revealer  of  anaesthetic  in- 
halation, by  whom  pain  in  surgery  was  annulled ;  before  whom,  in 
all  time,  surgery  was  agony ;  since  whom,  science  has  control  of 
pain." 

The  inscription  is  every  word  true,  but  it  tells  only  a  part  of  the 
great  story  of  what  made  the  improvement  in  the  mechanical  part  of 
surgery  possible.  Naturally,  a  patient  looking  forward  to  an  opera- 
tion as  a  season  of  torture  almost  beyond  human  endurance  would 
be  in  the  worst  possible  condition  to  bear  the  pain,  and  this  would 
affect  the  results  unfavorably.  The  unfortunate  effects  were  not 
confined  strictly  to  the  sufferings  of  the  patient.  Few  surgeons 
were  hard-hearted  enough  to  be  entirely  oblivious  to  the  suffering 
caused  by  an  operation.  With  his  attention  distracted  by  screams  of 
agony,  and  the  field  of  operation  constantly  in  motion  on  account  of 
the  writhings  of  the  patient,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  sur- 
gery of  that  time  was  crude  and  rough  as  compared  with  that  done 
to-day.  The  wonder  is  that  anything  was  done  at  all.  In  addition 
to  the  heartrending  sufferings,  the  old-time  surgeon  had  to  contend 
with  the  unceasing  flow  of  blood.  This  obscured  his  field  of  opera- 
tion and  made  the  utmost  speed  an  absolute  necessity,  for  life  flowed 
out  with  blood. 


MISCELLANEOUS.  655 

It  is  now  possible  by  the  injection  of  cocaine  into  the  spinal  canal 
to  produce  anaesthesia  of  the  entire  body  below  the  point  of  punc- 
ture. In  this  way  all  the  body  below  the  diaphragm  can  be  deprived 
of  sensibility  without  depriving  the  patient  of  consciousness.  By 
this  method  a  man  might  watch  the  amputation  of  his  foot,  if  he 
chose,  but  feel  no  pain. 

Bloodless  Surgery.  A  great  deal  of  modern  surgery  is  possible 
because  of  the  ability  of  the  surgeon  to  rapidly  and  surely  check  the 
loss  of  blood.  This  is  usually  done  by  means  of  the  hemostatic  for- 
cep,  which  is  simply  a  little  pair  of  pincers,  with  roughened  jaws, 
fitted  with  a  catch  so  that  it  will  remain  firmly  closed.  When,  in 
the  course  of  an  operation,  a  blood  vessel  is  cut,  the  end  of  it  is  seized 
with  a  forcep  and  the  pressure  stops  the  flow  of  blood  at  once,  while, 
at  the  same  time,  the  delicate  lining  of  the  vessel  is  lacerated  and  a 
little  clot  is  formed  which  plugs  the  opening.  Hot  water,  pressure, 
applied  in  a  dozen  different  ways,  and  many  other  expedients  are 
resorted  to  for  this  purpose.  Many  operations  are  performed  with- 
out the  loss  of  a  drop  of  blood,  as,  for  instance,  the  amputation  of  a 
leg  or  thigh.  In  such  a  case  the  leg  is  bound  tightly  from  the  toes 
to  a  point  well  above  the  seat  of  operation  with  an  elastic  rubber 
bandage,  thus  pressing  all  the  blood  out  of  the  leg  and  forcing  it  into 
the  blood  vessels  of  the  body,  where  it  is  needed.  Next,  a  con- 
stricting bandage  is  tightly  wound  around  the  leg  above  the  point  of 
operation  to  hold  the  blood  out,  and  the  first  bandage  is  removed. 
This  leaves  the  leg  entirely  bloodless  and  any  operation  on  it  can  be 
better  performed. 

Many  operations  which  are  possible  to-day,  because  the  surgeon 
can  take  an  hour  or  more  for  them,  were  never  thought  of  formerly. 
Operations  were  once  matters  of  minutes  and  seconds,  for  life  hung 
by  the  smallest  thread.  The  old-time  surgeon  had  to  encounter  fully 
as  great  difficulties  after  the  operation  as  during  it.  The  healing  of  a 


656  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

wound  without  suppuration  was  unknown,  and  healing  by  first  inten- 
tion or  without  the  formation  of  scar  tissue  was  an  impossibility  on 
account  of  the  invariable  infection  of  the  wound.  Secondary  hemor- 
rhage, from  the  literal  rotting  off  of  blood  vessels  that  had  been 
tied  with  necessarily  infected  ligatures,  hospital  gangrene,  erysipelas, 
and  a  hundred  other  "  surgical  horrors"  were  matters  of  everyday 
occurrence.  They  were  considered  unavoidable  until  Sir  Joseph 
Lister  in  1876  showed  the  profession  that  operations  were  possible 
without  the  subsequent  formation  of  pus.  As  soon  as  the  era  of 
experimental  investigation  began,  surgery  emerged  from  the  chaos 
of  ignorance  and  empiricism  and  became  an  exact  science.  It  is 
now  stripped  of  nearly  all  that  once  made  it  horrible.  It  is  more 
favorable  to  the  patient,  being  painless,  and  thereby  giving  the 
surgeon  time  and  opportunity  to  do  better  work.  It  enables  him 
to  do  with  the  certainty  of  mechanical  precision  that  which  was 
formerly  utterly  impossible.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  results 
are  better  and  that  much  less  tissue  is  sacrificed  than  under  the  old 
regime.  The  field  of  operation  is  perfectly  stationary,  thus  permit- 
ting great  delicacy  of  manipulation ;  and,  more  important  than  all 
this,  by  the  exercise  of  proper  precautions  the  aseptic  healing  of  the 
wound  can  be  made  a  matter  of  almost  absolute  certainty.  All  these 
things  make  it  imperative,  because  possible,  that  the  modern  surgeon 
do  better  and  more  difficult  work  than  was  done  by  his  predecessors. 
The  people  have  a  right  to  demand  it  of  him. 

Bacteria  are  thought  to  belong  to  the  vegetable  kingdom,  rather 
than  to  the  animal,  but  they  are  so  near  to  the  dividing  line  that  the 
distinction  is  of  very  little  practical  importance.  They  are  minute 
organisms,  from  .000012  to  .00006  of  an  inch  in  diameter  and  vary- 
ing from  a  spherical  form  to  long  rods. 

They  take  an  infinite  variety  of  shapes  and  each  kind  has  some 
distinctive  peculiarity  in  the  manner  in  which  or  the  conditions 


MISCELLANEOUS.  657 

under  which  it  multiplies  and  grows.  It  is  by  these  peculiarities 
that  the  different  kinds  can  be  identified.  Thousands  of  these  little 
fellows  have  been  classified,  but  we  have  only  begun  to  get  ac- 
quainted with  their  habits.  The  most  common  forms  are  cocci  and 
bacilli.  Cocci  are  spherical  and  bacilli  are  rod-shaped.  Sometimes 
bacilli  are  twisted  like  a  corkscrew  and  are  then  called  spirilli. 

There  are  several  terms  which  are  commonly  used  in  speaking  of 
bacteria  and  their  growth  or  destruction.  A  culture  is  an  artificial 
crop  of  bacteria,  grown  for  some  experimental  purpose.  A  colony 
is  one  of  the  centers  of  growth  of  bacteria  in  a  culture.  Each  kind 
of  bacterium  has  a  peculiarity  of  colony  growth.  What  is  a  good 
culture  for  one  kind  may  be  a  very  poor  one  for  another.  An  anti- 
septic is  an  agent,  generally  chemical,  which  prevents  or  retards  the 
growth  and  multiplication  of  bacteria;  a  germicide  is  one  which  di- 
rectly destroys  the  bacteria ;  a  disinfectant  is  one  which  accomplishes 
both  purposes. 

Operating  on  the  Brain.  To  convey  some  idea  of  the  nature  of 
a  modern  operation  let  us  suppose  the  case  of  a  patient  who  has  a 
brain  tumor  located  in  the  "arm  area,"  or  that  portion  of  the  brain 
which  controls  the  action  of  the  arm.  After  the  case  has  been  care- 
fully studied  the  patient  is  brought  to  the  hospital  and  prepared  for 
operation.  The  preparation  consists  of  two  parts;  first,  the  general 
preparation  for  the  anaesthetic,  and,  second,  the  local  preparation  of 
the  head  for  the  operation.  We  can  dismiss  the  first  by  saying  that 
it  consists  of  a  systematic  course  of  feeding  and  purging,  extending 
over  a  period  of  two  or  three  days.  The  local  preparation  begins 
the  day  before  the  operation  with  a  complete  shaving  of  the  head, 
which  is  then  thoroughly  scrubbed  with  green  soap,  water,  and  a 
scrubbing  brush;  next,  with  alcohol,  and  then  with  a  solution  of 
corrosive  sublimate  in  water  in  the  strength  of  about  I  :  2000.  The 
head  is  then  securely  bandaged  in  a  compress  wet  with  the  corrosive 


658          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

sublimate  solution  and  left  thus  till  the  next  day.  In  the  morning, 
before  the  patient  is  sent  to  the  operating  room,. the  same  process  is 
repeated  in  every  detail.  In  the  meantime,  very  busy  preparation 
has  been  going  on  in  the  operating  room.  Every  nook  and  corner 
of  the  room  has  been  thoroughly  washed  with  strong  antiseptic  solu- 
tions, and  made  as  free  from  germs  as  is  within  human  power.  A 
human  life  is  at  stake,  and  any  carelessness  or  negligence  would  be, 
in  the  light  of  modern  knowledge,  little  short  of  murder.  Every 
particle  of  the  dressings,  bandages,  sponges,  and  other  articles 
necessary  to  the  operation  has  been  rendered  germ  free.  To  do 
this  has  required  labor  lasting  during  three  days.  The  surgeon, 
assistants,  and  nurses  then  go  through  a  very  thorough  and  rigid 
course  of  preparation,  so  that  there  will  be  no  possibility  of  any  one 
of  them  carrying  infection  to  the  patient.  A  chain  is  no  stronger 
than  its  weakest  link. 

All  being  in  readiness,  and  the  instruments  sterilized,  the  patient 
is  anaesthetized  and  placed  on  the  table.  The  dressings  are  removed 
and  the  head  given  a  final  scrubbing,  even  more  vigorously  than  be- 
fore. Then  the  exact  position  for  the  operation  is  determined  and 
marked  on  the  bone.  A  horseshoe-shaped  flap,  sometimes  larger 
than  the  palm  of  the  hand,  is  cut,  leaving  the  narrow  part  or  pedicle 
in  such  a  position  as  to  allow  an  undisturbed  artery  to  carry  the 
necessary  blood  to  it  for  its  nutrition.  The  cut  which  marks  this  out 
is  made  through  to  the  bone,  and  then  at  each  of  the  "  corners"  a 
hole  about  half  an  inch  in  diameter  is  made  through  the  skull  with  a 
trephine,  which  is  an  instrument  especially  designed  for  the  purpose. 
The  flap  of  scalp  is  left  attached  to  the  bone,  for  it  is  through  this 
that  the  bone  must  receive  its  nourishment  when  it  is  cut  off  from 
its  usual  supply.  From  the  hole  on  one  side  of  the  neck  of  the  flap 
to  its  fellow  on  the  opposite  side,  inside  the  skull  and  hugging  it  very 
closely  indeedj  a  fine  wire  saw  is  passed,  and  the  skull  is  sawed  almost 


MISCELLANEOUS.  659 

through  from  the  inside.  Then  with  a  mallet  and  sharp  chisels,  the 
bone  is  cut  through  all  around  the  line  originally  marked  out.  When 
it  is  all  free  three  levers  are  put  under  its  edge  and  by  prying  it  up 
the  neck  or  narrow  part  is  completely  broken  loose  and  the  whole 
piece  is  turned  back  like  a  trapdoor,  using  the  unsevered  skin  as  a 
hinge.  This  exposes  the  dura  mater,  or  tough  membrane  which 
covers  the  brain.  This  membrane  is  picked  up  with  delicate  forceps, 
snipped  open,  and  the  brain  is  brought  into  view.  After  seeing  the 
tumor,  if  the  surgeon  decides  that  it  can  be  safely  removed  he  care- 
fully cuts  it  out.  All  bleeding  is  then  stopped  by  mechanical  means, 
and  the  dura  is  carefully  stitched  over  the  space,  a  small  opening 
being  left  through  which  passed  the  material  best  suited  to  insure 
drainage.  Lastly,  the  trapdoor  is  closed  and  the  skin  accurately 
stitched  together.  The  previously  sterilized  dressings  are  now 
applied,  and  the  patient  put  to  bed,  to  be  carefully  watched  and 
assiduously  nursed  till  recovery  takes  place.  The  after  treatment,  so 
far  as  surgical  measures  are  concerned,  consists  of  the  renewal  of  the 
dressings  when  necessary  and  the  removal  of  the  drainage  device  at 
the  proper  time. 

Such,  in  general,  are  the  steps  in  a  typical  surgical  operation. 
There  are  hundreds  of  details  which  we  have  not  attempted  to 
describe,  as  well  as  thousands  of  variations  to  suit  the  individual  case 
or  operation. 

It  used  to  be  the  rule  when  a  bullet  entered  the  brain  not  to 
attempt  to  find  it  or  get  it  out  because  it  was  thought  that  an  at- 
tempt to  remove  it  would  probably  give  rise  to  more  danger  than 
the  presence  of  the  bullet  itself.  Now  these  bullets  are  located 
either  by  the  X-rays  or  by  systematic  probing  and  are  removed  al- 
most as  readily  as  from  any  other  part  of  the  body. 

Skin-Grafting.  Burns  often  leave  horrible  scars  which,  by  their 
subsequent  contraction,  cause  great  deformities.  Among  the  worst 


660  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

of  these  are  the  burns  of  the  neck  and  chest,  which  cause  such  contrac- 
tion of  the  superficial  tissues  as  to  draw  and  hold  the  mouth  open  in  a 
ghastly  and  hideous  manner.  Burns  of  the  hands  occur  which  shrivel 
them  and  draw  them  out  of  shape  so  that  they  become  ugly  and  re- 
pulsive and  are  rendered  practically  useless.  Modern  mechanical 
surgery  has  been  able  to  relieve  most  of  these  unfortunates.  The 
process  consists  of  cutting  out  the  unhealthy  scar  tissue  and  trans- 
planting a  new  skin  upon  the  granulating  surface  that  is  obtained. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  the  skin  be  of  exactly  the  same  kind  as  that 
which  formerly  covered  the  part,  for  none  of  the  skin  which  is  actually 
transplanted  becomes  a  part  of  the  permanent  skin.  What  nature 
requires  in  this  case  is  a  pattern.  The  granulating  surface  is  covered 
with  a  kind  of  cells  which  is  very  different  from  those  which  make  up 
the  skin  or  mucous  membrane.  The  proper  variety  of  cells  might, 
in  time,  grow  in  from  the  sides  of  the  open  wound,  but  before  this 
necessary  time  could  elapse  a  new  scar  would  form  which  would  be 
just  as  bad  as  the  original  one,  or  perhaps  worse.  So  the  surgeon 
plants  on  the  raw  surface  some  of  the  kind  of  cells  which  makes  up 
the  skin.  These  may  be  taken  from  man  or  from  almost  any  animal. 
Some  operators  take  little  snips  of  skin,  the  size  of  a  pin  head,  from 
the  whole  thickness  of  the  skin,  while  others  prefer  to  shave  off  the 
outer  layers  of  the  skin  from  an  area  large  enough  to  cover  the  entire 
raw  surface.  When  the  skin  from  the  bellies  of  frogs  is  used,  as  it  is 
frequently,  the  whole  area  is  covered.  The  surface  on  which  these 
grafts  are  placed  is  made  thoroughly  aseptic  and  every  detail  of  the 
operation  is  conducted  so  as  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  the  part 
becoming  infected.  If  any  pus  appears  the  hope  of  a  successful  out- 
come may  as  well  be  abandoned.  * 


*  Dr.  William  Keen,  in  speaking  of  modern  surgery,  says:  "  The  surgeon  who  does 
not  get  primary  union  without  a  drop  of  pus,  with  no  fever,  and  with  little  suffering  asks 
himself,  What  was  the  fault  in  my  technic  ?  " 


MISCELLANEOUS.  66 1 

The  grafts,  whatever  be  their  shape,  size,  or  thickness,  are 
simply  placed  on  the  raw  surface,  carefully  protected,  and  kept 
moist.  In  the  course  of  a  few  days,  the  original  grafts  disappear 
entirely  and  at  each  point  where  they  were  placed  will  be  seen  a 
small  pearly  point.  Nature  has  found  the  pattern  for  which  she  was 
seeking,  and  the  tissues  have  begun  to  form  the  sort  of  cells  from 
which  skin  is  made.  In  this  way,  the  surface  is  covered  with  a  large 
number  of  little  islands  of  new  skin  and  the  whole  task  is  divided  up 
into  many  small  tasks,  for  the  skin  grows  in  all  directions  from  each 
of  these  islands  at  the  same  time.  The  process  of  recovery  then 
becomes  a  race  between  the  formation  of  healthy  skin  and  the 
formation  of  scar  tissue.  If  the  skin  wins  the  case  will  be  cured ;  if 
the  scar  tissue  wins,  a  little  gain  will  be  made,  and  the  operation  can 
be  repeated  with  a  reasonable  hope  for  ultimate  success. 

Straightening  Crooked  Bones.  Bow  legs  and  knock  knees  are 
unsightly  and  inconvenient  deformities  which,  thanks  to  the  progress 
of  mechanical  surgery,  can  now  be  successfully  treated.  The  opera- 
tion is  varied  for  each  case,  but,  in  general,  the  procedure  is  to  break 
the  bones  by  some  method,  setting  and  holding  them  in  the  desired 
position  until  they  have  grown  to  it.  Club  foot  is  cured  by  length- 
ening the  shortened  tendons  and  holding  the  foot  in  the  proper  po- 
sition until  the  tendons  have  healed.  In  some  long-standing  cases 
the  bones  are  deformed  to  such  an  extent  that  a  wedge-shaped 
piece  of  bone  has  to  be  taken  out  of  the  convex  side  in  order  to 
allow  the  foot  to  be  forced  into  its  proper  position.  The  treatment 
of  these  conditions  is  a  matter  of  mechanical  ingenuity  and  the 
making  of  the  plaster  of  paris  casts  which  are  used  to  hold  the  parts 
in  their  proper  position,  and  which  must  be  comfortable  to  the 
patient  and  without  dangerous  pressure,  gives  the  surgeon  ample 
chance  to  show  his  mechanical  skill.  It  should  be  considered  a 
punishable  neglect  for  parents  or  guardians  to  allow  a  "  hunchback" 


662  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

to  go  without  surgical  treatment,  as  by  proper  treatment  many  of 
these,  unfortunates  can  be  saved  from  lifelong  deformity.  The 
cause  of  this  condition  is  tuberculous  disease  of  the  bodies  of  the 
vertebrae.  It  has  been  proved  beyond  question  by  many  examples 
that  if  these  patients  are  placed  in  a  position  of  absolute  rest  and  all 
weight  taken  from  the  spinal  column,  the  disease  process  will  tend 
to  abate  and  although  perfectly  healthy  bone  and  normal  movement 
of  the  joints  cannot  be  secured  the  progress  of  the  disease  will  be 
stayed  and  much  of  the  deformity  obviated.  The  matter  assumes 
additional  importance  when  we  consider  that  tuberculous  processes 
seldom  arise  in  the  lungs  but  usually  begin  in  some  other  part  of  the 
body  and  are  transplanted  to  the  lungs.  This  treatment  for  tuber- 
culosis of  the  vertebrae  is  a  distinctly  mechanical  one  and  has  only 
become  markedly  successful  since  a  special  class  of  physicians  has 
given  close  attention  to  the  mechanics  of  surgery.  The  little  patient, 
for  such  patients  are  usually  children,  can  be  kept  in  a  position  of 
absolute  rest  by  strapping  it  down  to  a  bed,  but  this  deprives  it  of 
the  fresh  air  and  the  exercise  of  the  parts  of  the  body  which  are  not 
diseased,  both  of  which  are  valuable  aids  to  a  cure.  It  also  tends  to 
produce  bedsores  and  all  the  wasting  and  diminution  of  vital  force 
which  enforced  inactivity  causes.  All  that  is  necessary  for  the  suc- 
cess of  this  treatment  is  that  the  spine  be  kept  in  a  state  of  rest,  and 
a  large  variety  of  apparatus  has  been  devised  which  enables  the  con- 
dition of  rest  to  be  maintained  without  enforcing  the  position  of 
rest.  This  opens  up  an  almost  unlimited  field  for  mechanical  inven- 
tion, as  each  case  must  be  studied  to  learn  exactly  what  form  and 
arrangement  of  apparatus  will  keep  the  spine  absolutely  quiet  and, 
at  the  same  time,  not  restrict  the  movements  of  the  other  parts  of 
the  body. 

Surgery  and  Consumption.       A    few    cases   of    pulmonary   con- 
sumption  have  been   treated   by  the   operative   method.      It  is    too 


MISCELLANEOUS.  663 

early  to  predicate  results,  but  much  hope  is  entertained.  As  already 
stated,  tuberculosis  of  the  spine  can  be  arrested"  by  simply  placing 
the  part  at  rest.  The  same  rule  applies  to  all  other  parts  of  the 
body,  but  it  is  very  difficult  to  secure  rest  in  the  lungs,  which  are 
filling  and  emptying  about  17  times  every  minute,  day  and  night, 
making  them  the  most  unfavorable  part  of  the  body  in  which  to  ar- 
rest a  tuberculous  process.  The  method  suggested  and  used  by 
Murphy  of  Chicago,  and  others,  is  to  inject  nitrogen  gas  into  the 
pleural  cavity.  There  is  no  mystery  about  the  action  of  this  method 
for  it  is  all  in  accordance  with  mechanical  common  sense.  The 
nitrogen  is  placed  between  the  chest  and  wall  and  the  lung  proper 
and  as  the  lung  is,  in  some  respects,  like  a  distended  elastic  bag,  as 
soon  as  nitrogen,  or  any  other  gas,  is  forced  into  the  place  this  bag 
occupies  the  bag  collapses.  When  the  lung  collapses  it  ceases  ac- 
tion. It  is  known,  from  actual  experiment,  that  enough  breathing 
can  be  done  with  one  lung  to  support  life.  So  the  other  lung  has  to 
do  double  duty  for  a  time  while  the  collapsed  lung  gets  the  rest  it 
needs.  The  nitrogen  is  slowly  absorbed,  and  in  the  course  of  several 
weeks  it  will  all  disappear  and  the  lung  will  gradually  and  easily 
resume  its  regular  duties.  But,  in  the  meantime,  it  has  been'  placed 
in  the  most  favorable  condition  for  the  healing  forces  of  nature  to 
put  a  stop  to  the  tuberculosis  and  in  some  cases  seems  to  succeed. 

Surgery's  Battle  with  Cancer,  One  of  the  most  dreaded  dis- 
eases is  cancer.  If  not  treated,  it  is  certain  death  ;  treated  in  any 
but  the  most  thorough  and  correct  manner  and  at  the  proper  time, 
the  outlook  is  fully  as  gloomy ;  properly  treated  in  time,  the  prospects 
for  recovery  are,  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases,  very  good  indeed. 
This  statement  could  not  have  been  made  a  few  years  ago.  Modern 
surgery  has  partially  conquered  this  disease.  It  must  be  re- 
membered that  during  the  time  when  cancer  is  curable  it  is  entirely 
painless.  After  the  pain  begins,  there  is  very  small  chance  of  re- 


664  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

covery,  as  the  disease  has  then  usually  progressed  so  far  that  it  is 
beyond  the  power  of  the  surgeon  to  do  more  than  partially  relieve 
the  pain  and  remove  the  stench.  It  can  be  treated  successfully  only 
by  cutting  out  all  the  diseased  tissue  and  also  all  that  which  will,  in 
the  judgment  of  the  surgeon,  sooner  or  later  become  the  seat  of  an 
extension  of  the  pernicious  cell  growth.  One  of  the  most  frequent 
locations  of  cancer  is  the  female  breast.  Before  there  is  any  pain 
felt,  and  when  there  is  only  a  slight  swelling  which  the  patient  is 
often  deluded  into  thinking  harmless,  "because  it  does  not  hurt," 
there  are  signs  and  symptoms  which  will  enable  the  surgeon  to  detect 
the  true  nature  of  the  trouble.  As  soon  as  the  disease  can  be  recog- 
nized is  the  time  and  the  only  possible  time  to  effect  a  cure.  To  do 
this  the  entire  mammary  gland  is  removed  and  all  the  muscles  under- 
lying it,  until  the  bony  wall  of  the  chest  is  laid  bare  and  clean.  Then 
the  lymphatic  glands  around  and  under  the  collar  bone  are  taken  out 
and  the  arm  pit  is  laid  open  and  all  the  glands  carefully  and 
thoroughly  dissected  out.  This  latter  part  of  the  operation  is  very 
delicate  work  and  has  to  be  done  slowly  and  carefully.  The  opera- 
tion, when  properly  performed,  frequently  requires  two  or  three 
hours  of  the  best  work  of  the  most  skillful  surgeons,  aided  by  their 
trained  assistants ;  for  nothing  short  of  absolute  and  complete  re- 
moval will  be  of  any  avail.  This  leaves  an  enormous  wound  but  it 
can  usually  be  almost,  if  not  entirely,  covered  by  loosening  the  skin 
from  the  surrounding  tissues  and  drawing  it  over  the  open  wound. 
If  an  uncovered  space  is  left  it  must  be  covered  later  by  skin  graft- 
ing. Notwithstanding  the  severity  of  this  operation,  the  patient  can 
usually  be  out  of  bed  in  a  week  and  can  use  the  arm  to  some  extent 
in  the  course  of  three  weeks.  This  would  not  be  possible  if  anything 
but  the  most  rigid  aseptic  precautions  were  used.  That  is  what 
shortens  the  time  necessary  for  recovery  and  what,  in  fact,  makes 
recovery  from  such  a  mutilation  at  all  possible. 


MISCELLANEOUS.  665 

Removal  of  the  Stomach.  The  world  was  startled,  a  few  years 
ago,  by  the  report  that  the  entire  stomach  had  been  removed  and 
the  patient  had  recovered.  This  was  done  and  the  patient  did  re- 
cover entirely  from  the  operation,  but  afterwards  died  from  a  recur- 
rence of  the  disease  for  which  the  operation  had  been  done, —  cancer 
of  the  stomach.  It  is  an  unfortunate  fact  that  when  this  disease  has 
progressed  to  such  an  extent  that  a  patient  will  consent  to  have  the 
stomach  removed,  the  tissues  surrounding  the  stomach  have  usually 
become  involved,  and  even  then  the  removal  of  the  entire  diseased 
organ  will  not  cure.  The  only  way  to  cure  it  is  to  take  out  every- 
thing that  has  gone  to  the  bad,  and  everything  that  has  been  in  bad 
company,  for  reformation  is  not  possible  in  this  matter.  Once  an 
organ  has  become  the  seat  of  the  peculiar  form  of  cell  growth  which 
constitutes  cancer,  it  cannot  be  cured.  The  only  hope  is  to  remove 
it  at  once  and  prevent  its  doing  any  further  damage  by  inducing  the 
same  condition  in  adjacent  organs. 

The  removal  of  the  stomach  has  been  accomplished  with  perfect 
success  in  a  number  of  cases,  but  in  none  of  them  has  it  been  under- 
taken as  a  cure.  All  that  was  hoped  was  that  a  few  more  months  or 
years  might  be  added  to  the  life  of  the  patient.  The  operation  in 
itself  is  difficult  but  no  more  difficult  than  many  others  which  are 
performed  every  day  and  from  which  cures  have  regularly  resulted. 

Surgery  of  the  Eye.  The  most  delicate  branch  of  surgery  is  the 
surgery  of  the  eye,  and  it  is  a  branch  which  has  made  very  rapid 
progress  in  recent  years.  Hundreds  of  different  operations,  all  of 
the  most  delicate  and  precise  character,  are  now  performed  on  the 
eyes  and  a  great  number  of  persons  are  given  either  perfect  sight,  or 
some  sight,  who  would  otherwise  be  doomed  to  hopeless  blindness 
or  to  such  imperfect  sight  as  to  render  them  practically 'helpless. 
Cataract  is  a  common  eye  disease  which,  if  not  treated,  will  cause 
blindness,  but  it  can  now  be  successfully  treated  in  the  majority  of 


666          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

cases.  In  the  normal  eye  there  is  a  little  lens  which  is  transparent 
and  which  has  the  power  of  so  changing  its  shape  as  to  enable  it  to 
focus  on  the  retina  rays  of  light  from  objects  at  different  distances. 
Cataract  is  caused  by  this  lens  becoming  clouded  or  opaque.  The 
treatment  is  to  remove  the  diseased  lens.  This  is  a  most  delicate 
operation,  and  one  in  which  a  mistake  of  a  hair's  breadth  will  surely 
and  irreparably  blind  the  patient.  The  lens  having  been  removed, 
its  place  is  supplied  by  a  convex  glass  placed  before  the  eye,  but  not 
in  the  eye,  as  many  suppose.  Without  the  help  of  the  glass,  the 
operation  would  be  futile  because  nothing  but  a  glare  of  light  could 
be  seen.  With  two  or  more  glasses  for  use  at  different  distances,  a 
fairly  good  vision  can  be  obtained.  Any  gain  whatever  in  the  power 
of  seeing,  when  otherwise  blindness  would  be  inevitable,  is  a  gain 
worth  risking  a  great  deal  to  secure. 

Sometimes  blindness  is  caused  by  a  scar  on  the  cornea,  that  clear, 
watch-crystal-like  window  which  forms  the  front  of  the  eyeball. 
When  the  scar  is  so  situated  as  to  cover  the  pupil  and  still  leave  a 
clear  space  at  the  side  of  it,  a  new  pupil  can  be  made  by  removing  a 
portion  of  the  iris,  thus  restoring  the  sight.  Squint  or  cross-eye  is 
a  very  unsightly  affection  and  one  which  usually  forces  the  patient  to 
use  only  one  eye.  Most  of  these  cases  can  be  cured  by  operation  on 
the  muscles  which  move  the  eyeball.  By  a  slight  lengthening  of 
certain  tendons  and  a  slight  shortening  of  others,  the  proper  balance 
can  be  restored  and  the  patient  be  given  a  practically  perfect  pair  of 
eyes  again. 

Eyes  are  sometimes  so  badly  injured  or  diseased  as  to  necessitate 
their  entire  removal.  When  this  is  done,  there- is  either  a  hideous 
gaping  cavity  as  a  result,  or  else  a  glass  eye  is  inserted.  When  done 
in  the  old  way,  this  glass  eye  always  stared  straight  ahead,  produc- 
ing fully  as  disagreeable  an  effect  on  the  observer  as  would  the  open 
socket.  Mr.  Mules,  an  English  surgeon,  has  devised  an  operation 


MISCELLANEOUS.  667 

which  does  away  with  this  disagreeable  feature.  Instead  of  taking 
out  the  whole  eye,  he  cuts  off  the  cornea  and  thoroughly  scrapes  out 
all  the  contents  of  the  eyeball.  This  leaves  the  hard  and  tough 
shell  or  sclera,  to  which  are  attached  the  muscles  which  move  the 
eyeball.  After  the  wound  has  healed,  there  is  a  solid  stump  left  in 
the  socket  which  can  be  moved  in  any  direction  at  will.  Over  this 
is  fitted  a  glass  eye,  which  moves  with  the  stump  and  follows  the 
movement  of  the  other  eye.  The  results  of  this  operation  are  so 
good  that  in  some  cases  it  requires  a  very  close  inspection  to  detect 
that  one  eye  is  an  artificial  one. 

Vaccination.  May  I4th,  1796,  Dr.  Edward  Jenner,  an  English 
physician,  inoculated  James  Phipps  with  cowpox  as  a  preventive  of 
smallpox  and  thus  scored  a  triumph  over  one  .of  the  most  dread 
diseases  to  which  humanity  has  ever  been  subject.  Prior  to  this  dis- 
covery the  frequently  recurring  ravages  of  smallpox  had  been  fright- 
ful. In  Russia  it  had  been  fatal  to  no  less  than  two  million  persons 
in  a  single  year;  in  1707  six  per  cent,  of  the  entire  population  of  Ire- 
land died  of  the  disease,  and  in  England  it  was  unusual  to  see 
an  unscarred  face.  Now  smallpox  is  one  of  the  rarest  of  diseases 
and  is  seldom  fatal  under  skillful  treatment.  Notwithstanding  the 
evidence  from  all  sides  as  to  the  efficacy  of  vaccination,  there  have 
not  been  wanting  opponents  to  the  procedure.  It  is  impossible  for 
anyone  with  any  acquaintance  with  the  nature  of  the  evidence  to  see 
on  what  grounds  such  opposition  is  based. 

Hundreds  of  other  examples  might  be  mentioned,  but  the  fore- 
going are  enough  to  show  how  closely  modern  surgery  is  related  to 
mechanical  progress.  It  is  a  truly  gratifying  thought  that  the  pos- 
sibilities of  modern  mechanics  is  not  limited  to  the  building  and 
perfecting  of  mere  inanimate  temples,  but  that  it  is  a  potent  factor 
in  preserving  and  bettering  the  "  Temple  of  the  Soul." 


668 


THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 


THE  HOUSEKEEPER'S  DEBT  TO  INVENTION. 

The  inventions  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  have  been 
grand  and  far-reaching;  they 
have  girdled  the  earth  and  fol- 
lowed the  stars  in  their 
courses,  but  what  they  have 
done  for  the  women  of  the 
world,  laboring  faithfully  in 
multitudes  of  quiet  homes, 
outweighs  all  other  conse- 
quences. 

From  the  home  emanate  the  qualities  which  make  or  mar  a 
nation's  life;  hence,  whatever  gives  opportunity  to  the  women  who 
make  the  homes,  rises  superior  to  that  which  gives  merely  financial 
results.  Science  tells  us  that  the  physical  part  of  man  must  be 
sound  or  there  will  be  failure  in  the  mental  part,  and  the  mental  side 
must  be  healthy  or  the  moral  side  will  be  weak;  that  the  early 
years,  the  years  spent  in  the  home,  make  the  deepest  impression  on 
the  future,  and  these  years  are  in  the  hands  of  the  mothers  and 
home-makers. 

Our  grandmothers  (dear  old  ladies)  did  not  have  even  the  chance 
that  the  women  of  to-day  have,  to  take  an  occasional  look  at  Science 
and  then  walk  proudly  in  her  steps.  They  baked,  they  brewed,  they 
spun,  they  wove,  they  churned,  they  ironed,  they  knit,  they  braided, 
they  dyed,  and  then  they  died.  We  fear  they  did  not  have  time  for 
much  else  in  their  lives.  The  inventions  that  make  many  things  easy 
for  the  women  of  to-day  were  then  unknown  and  Science  did  not 
speak  so  loudly  as  she  does  now  of  the  necessity  of  right  physical 
living. 

In  order  to  realize  what  invention  has  done  for  the  home  and  the 


MISCELLANEOUS.  669 

housekeeper,  it  will  be  necessary  to  take  a  little  trip  back  into  what 
Mrs.  Stowe  called  the  "jog-trot  days" — the  days  of  our  grand- 
mothers—  and  see  how  life  ran  with  them. 

Like  Solomon's  wise  woman,  our  foremother  arose  with  the  sun. 
It  was  original  sin  to  be  lazy.  Satan  in  those  days  found  no  "idle 
hands"  with  which  to  do  "mischief."  It  was  a  matter  of  time  to 
make  the  fires  in  the  great  fireplaces,  for  phosphorus  matches,  which 
expedite  so  many  things  for  us,  were  not  in  general  use  until  about 
1840,  and  our  foremother  must  get  the  spark  with  which  to  light  the 
fire  by  the  use  of  flint  and  steel.  For  lighting  purposes  she  some- 
times used  fat  pine  knots;  then  came  candles  which  she  laboriously 
made  from  beef  tallow ;  after  candles  came  pungent  smelling  whale 
oil  lamps,  while  many  burning  fluids  and  then  kerosene  oil  followed 
somewhat  later.  Invention  had  not  then  brought  to  her  aid  the 
lighting  and  heating  powers  of  gas  and  electricity. 

For  the  breakfast,  dinner,  and  supper  of  the  household  she  had 
to  depend  upon  her  own  resources;  no  caterer,  no  canned  goods 
helped  her  in  an  emergency.  Perhaps  she  had  a  smoke  house  and 
salting  tubs  for  beef  and  pork,  and  prepared  her  own  bacon,  ham, 
beef,  and  fish ;  for,  in  some  way,  she  must  be  ready  as  cook  to  feed 
her  household.  She  preserved  and  pickled;  she  brewed  beer  and 
made  wine  from  currants,  elderberries,  and  grapes.  She  raised 
medicinal  herbs  and  distilled  potent  curative  essences  and  ointments. 
She  made  butter  and  cheese  with  none  of  the  modern  conveniences. 
Having  saved  her  refuse  grease,  she  went  to  the  leach  barrel  and 
with  wood  ashes  proceeded  to  make  lye  for  soap. 

The  "  sitting  room  "  needed  a  carpet  and  this  patient,  all-endur- 
ing woman  cut  and  sewed  rags,  then,  from  the  old  hand-loom  came 
an  oriental  looking  web  into  the  warp  and  woof  of  which  were  woven 
things  precious  as  love,  courage,  and  faithfulness. 

The  custom  of  braiding  mats  was  as  universal  as  carpet  weaving, 


6/O  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN   MECHANISM. 

and  the  house-mother  also  braided  the  straw  hats  which  her  "men 
folks"  wore  during  the  summer  months,  while  she  sometimes  earned 
money  for  a  coveted  treasure,  which  could  not  be  obtained  other- 
wise, by  braiding  hats  for  the  "  store." 

"Hannah's  at  the  window  binding  shoes"  was  not  a  myth  or 
poetical  fancy  but  a  workaday  fact,  and  by  binding  shoes  many  a 
woman  helped  increase  a  scanty  income. 

When  it  became  too  dark  for  other  work,  that  time  might  not 
be  wasted,  the  knitting  needles  were  plied  in  nearly  every  home. 
One  old  writer  enumerates:  "They  knitte  hose,  knitte  peticotes, 
knitte  gloves,  knitte  slieves."  They  knit  so  much  that  it  became 
automatic  and  they  could  knit  with  their  eyes  shut,  so  that,  seeing 
them,  one  involuntarily  parodied  Hood's  Song  of  the  Shirt :  — 

"  —  till  over  the  stocking  she  fell  asleep 
But  still  knit  on  in  her  dreams." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century  knitting  was  universal;  even  as 
late  as  the  Civil  War  it  was  still  a  part  of  woman's  work,  and  many 
stockings  were  knit  for  soldiers  as  the  homemade  article  better  en- 
dured the  wear  and  tear  of  the  march  ;  but  the  great  stockinet,  shirt, 
and  woolen  factories  have  relegated  this  work  to  the  things  of  the 
past. 

This  ancestress  of  ours,  for  whom  we  are  sorry  and  of  whom  we 
are  proud,  was  a  manufacturer.  She  took  the  flax  which  had  been 
grown  for  the  purpose  and  wove  it  into  linen  to  make  tablecloths, 
shirting,  sheets,  and  garments.  To  prepare  this  linen  it  is  said  that 
over  forty  bleaching  manipulations  were  necessary.  She  took  the 
fleece  sheared  from  the  sheep,  washed,  carded,  and  spun  it,  and  then 
wove  it  into  cloth.  She  gathered  sassafras,  the  bark  of  red  oak,  and 
of  the  hickory  nut,  and  with  alum,  logwood,  and  various  other  com- 
pounds, dyed  the  cloth  whatever  color  she  desired,  and  from  this 


MISCELLANEOUS.  6?  I 

cloth  she  made  the  garments  of  her  household.  To  the  ceaseless 
whirring  of  her  wheel  she  might  well  have  sung  with  Tennyson's 
Enid :  — 

"  Our  hoard  is  little  but  our  hearts  are  great." 

The  great  canning  industries  whereby  immense  quantities  of 
fruits,  vegetables,  meats,  and  other  perishable  stuffs  are  preserved 
to  feed  the  hungry  world  were  then  unimagined,  nor  had  she  the 
smaller  helps  such  as  apple  parers,  fruit  corers,  and  driers;  but  her 
household  must  be  fed  during  the  barren  months,  so  with  her  two 
hands  and  a  knife  she  endeavored  to  save  as  much  as  possible  of  the 
swiftly  decaying  apples,  pears,  peaches,  plums,  quinces,  currants,  and 
grapes  by  drying  and  preserving  in  various  ways. 

In  the  household  of  the  past  there  was  a  great  demand  for  pies, 
which  must  be  "  shortened,"  and,  as  there  were  no  accommodating 
butchers  to  -stop  frequently  at  her  door  for  orders,  into  her  day's 
work  came  the  task  of  trying  out  lard  from  such  portions  of  our  por- 
cine friend  as  would  yield  the  desired  lubricant. 

These  are  only  some  of  the  ways  the  woman  of  the  past,  by  un- 
sparing, unceasing  labor,  accomplished  her  many  and  arduous  tasks. 

Science  makes  it  clear  that  much  of  this  brave  work  was  disas- 
trous to  herself  and  to  those  who  came  after  her  because  the  laws  of 
health  were  constantly  violated;  but,  "with  all  her  imperfections 
on  her  head,"  as  the  light  from  the  beacon  of  science  streams  back  over 
the  nineteenth  century,  it  gleams  upon  nothing  more  admirable  than 
our  valiant  foremother.  But  after  a  survey  of  our  grandmother's 
work  who  would  be  willing  to  again  take  up  the  white  woman's 
burden? 

The  home  is  the  most  fundamental  fact  in  a  man's  life  aside  from 
his  inherited  qualities,  and  even  these  come  from  past  home  in- 
fluences, and  Science,  recognizing  that  the  mother,  the  home-maker, 
cannot  carry  burdens  that  strain  every  nerve  and  muscle  and  at  the 


6/2  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

same  time  cultivate  an  intelligent  understanding  of  the  relationship 
of  the  body  to  the  mind,  has  come  to  her  aid  with  inventions  and 
machinery  designed  to  lighten  her  drudgery  and  give  her  time  to 
widen  her  outlook.  The  past  may  have  been  against  her,  but  the 
future  is  with  her,  and  invention  and  machinery  are  her  handmaids. 

Consider  some  of  the  inventions  that  have  a  direct  bearing  on  the 
work  of  the  mother  and  housekeeper.  While  many  of  them  add  to 
the  luxury  of  the  wealthy,  non-producing  one  tenth,  most  of  them 
are  designed  to  help  the  nine  tenths,  Lincoln's  ''plain  people"  who 
produce  the  wealth  and  bear  the  burdens  of  their  country. 

Chief  among  modern  health  promoters  we  must  count  sanitary 
plumbing  and  sewerage  systems;  also  the  cementing  of  cellars;  and 
it  seems  impossible  to  speak  with  too  much  enthusiasm  of  the  great 
advance  made  in  heating  and  lighting.  From  the  open  fireplaces 
with  their  immense  logs  —  from  the  later  air-tight  stoves,  to  the  coal, 
gas,  steam,  and  electric  heating  and  lighting  of  the  present  is  a  long 
step,  and  few  homes  are  now  so  poor  that  these  great  inventions  do 
not  radiate  some  comfort  upon  them,  while  inventors  are  promising 
still  greater  things  for  the  future.  This  means  better  health  in  the 
homes  as  well  as  less  work  and  greater  cleanliness. 

The  great  modern  cooking  range  with  every  possible  adaptation 
for  its  purpose,  and  providing  for  the  use  of  either  or  both  coal  and 
gas;  the  oil,  gasoline,  and  gas  stoves,  saving  heat  in  summer  and 
time  in  winter,  are  all  comparatively  recent  and  are  among  the  house- 
keeper's greatest  blessings. 

Perhaps  in  this  connection,  the  Aladdin  Oven,  patented  by  the 
eminent  statistician  of  Boston,  Prof.  Edward  Atkinson,  should  be 
mentioned.  Mr.  Atkinson  claims  that  "very  much  good  material  is 
wasted  in  cooking"  that  can  be  saved  by  the  use  of  his  oven,  that 
flavors  lost  in  ordinary  cooking  are  retained,  and  that  it  is  impossible 
for  food  to  be  overdone  or  underdone.  The  heat  is  furnished  by  an 
ordinary  "Rochester"  lamp. 


MISCELLANEOUS.  673 

If  we  consider  the  water  service,  we  find  hot  and  cold  water  pipes 
in  nearly  every  house  with  bath  room,  a  laundry  with  set  tubs,  and 
a  never-failing  supply  of  hot  water  for  the  kitchen,  laundry,  and  bath 
room.  The  labor  incident  to  the  weekly  wash  is  further  lightened 
by  washing  and  wringing  machines,  while  the  self-heating  flatiron  is 
an  additional  comfort  and  convenience. 

Around  the  housekeeper  and  cook  crowd  many  inventions,  for  the 
cooking  question  is  a  serious  one,  and  the  conservation  of  the  natural 
powers  is  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  housekeeper. 

The  great  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  said,  "  Dinner  is  the  most  impor- 
tant event  of  the  day,"  and  it  certainly  is  on  that  day  when  all  the 
dear  ones  come  trooping  home  to  partake  of  the  Thanksgiving  feast. 
Then,  if  ever,  the  wise  housekeeper  realizes  her  need  and  calls  to  her 
service  all  the  aids  that  invention  can  give  her.  By  telephone  she 
orders  turkey  and  chickens,  and  by  the  aid  of  cold  storage  and  fast 
freights  they  have  come  from  a  distant  state  in  fine  preservation.  To 
save  time  and  work  she  uses  canned  vegetables  and  has  June  peas  in 
November.  She  has  only  to  use  a  can-opener  and  her  soup  is  nearly 
ready.  With  seven  hundred  patented  churns  on  the  market,  this 
housekeeper  can  if  she  wishes  make  her  own  butter,  but  butter  from 
the  creamery  is  just  as  good  and  saves  time;  with  a  patented  whip- 
churn  she  prepares  the  cream  for  the  table  in  a  moment;  with  a 
Dover  egg-beater  she  prepares  eggs  for  the  pudding,  and,  as  she 
flavors  it,  is  glad  she  need  not  make  her  own  extracts.  She  bakes 
her  pies  in  an  oven  with  a  glass  door  and  by  the  aid  of  an  oven 
thermometer.  She  makes  ice  cream  in  a  patent  freezer,  prepares 
potato  with  a  patent  potato-masher,  brings  cheese  from  a  distant 
factory  and  pickles  from  the  neighboring  store,  and  makes  ready  the 
nuts  with  a  patent  nut  cracker.  Dinner  having  been  served,  the 
washing  of  the  dishes  is  quickly  accomplished  by  the  aid  of  a  patented 
dish-washer,  and  as  this  busy  home-maker  puts  away  the  remnants 


6/4  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

of  the  food  in  her  commodious  refrigerator,  she  thinks  what  a  bless- 
ing is  ice  and  is  almost  thankful  that  the  "  good  old  days"  are  in  the 
limbo  of  the  past. 

But  the  labor  saving  inventions  used  in  preparing  this  dinner  are 
by  no  means  all  that  lighten  the  housekeeper's  burden.  There  is 
the  sausage  grinder,  the  egg  boiler,  the  waffle  iron,  the  steam  boiler, 
the  apple  parer,  the  milk  cooler,  the  centrifugal  cream  skimmer. 
There  is  oleomargarine,  lard,  and  the  beef  extracts,  and  in  connec- 
tion with  the  great  help  the  housekeeper  has  received  in  the  preser- 
vation of  food  by  ice,  it  may  be  said  that  at  the  present  writing  it 
promises  to  become  cheaper  and  more  general,  as  an  electric  ice 
machine  has  been  invented  which  the  inventor  promises  to  adapt  to 
private  use,  so  that  in  the  near  future  the  housekeeper  can  prepare 
ice  cheaply  and  in  such  quantity  as  may  be  wanted. 

Science  is  helping  to  give  the  housekeeper  time  to  see  more  of 
the  beauty  of  the  world  in  which  we  live  and  to  realize  something  of 
the  forces  that  make  and  govern  it.  The  cook  is  surely  among 
those  forces.  A  recent  writer  says,  "  Anarchists  are  the  result  of  a 
university  education  upon  an  empty  stomach,"  so  it  behooves  to 
keep  the  world  well  fed. 

The  preparing  of  three  meals  a  day,  three  hundred  and  sixty-five 
days  in  the  year,  makes  the  food 'question  and  the  inventions  and 
discoveries  that  touch  upon  it  a  very  intimate  one  to  the  home- 
maker,  but  there  are  other  sides  to  the  home  and  invention  has 
reached  out  a  hand  and  lightened  them  all.  Some  of  the  helps  may 
appear  small  to  others  than  the  housekeeper  but  she  well  knows  the 
relief  they  have  afforded  her.  Years  ago  women-were  dressmakers 
and  tailors  for  their  families,  but  Howe's  sewing  machine  came  in 
1846,  and,  after  a  time,  it  immensely  lightened  the  housekeeper's 
work.  A  woman  no  longer  makes  the  clothing  worn  by  her  husband 
and  sons,  and  even  her  own  clothing  is  largely  shop-made.  With  carpet 


MISCELLANEOUS.  675 

factories  on  the  right  and  on  the  left,  women  have  lost  weaving  out 
of  their  lives,  but  some  of  them,  like  Penelope,  still  cling  to  em- 
broidery. She  cares  for  her  carpets  with  the  carpet  sweeper  and  the 
carpet  renovator,  and,  if  she  prefers  a  bare  floor  with  a  rug  here  and 
there,  she  will  find  that  a  machine  for  making  rugs  has  been  invented, 
and  in  1894  a  machine  for  sewing  carpets.  If  for  any  reason  this 
housekeeper  wishes  to  use  dyes,  she  need  not  compound  them  her- 
self in  wearisome  ways,  but  she  will  find  that  brilliant  dyes  have  been 
prepared  for  her  by  the  chemist.  In  place  of  the  feather  bed,  she  has 
the  hair  mattress,  and  perhaps  with  it  the  folding  bed  which  maybe  a 
bed  when  so  needed  and  something  else  when  something  else  is  prefer- 
able. Does  the  mistress  wish  "to  set"  a  hen?  There  are  incubators 
and  she  would  better  make  use  of  one  than  do  as  did  the  Reverend 
Doctor  of  whom  Mrs.  Stowe  tells,  who  had  a  fight  with  an  old  torn 
turkey  to  make  him  perform  that  office,  coming  off  second  best. 

The  list  of  helps  is  long  and  every  housekeeper  will  be  able  to 
lengthen  it  by  the  addition  of  something  that  has  been  of  exceptional 
benefit  to  herself. 

The  numerous  inventions  in  many  lines  to  lighten  household 
drudgery  give  the  housekeeper  a  chance  to  improve  the  quality  of 
the  work  which  she  does  for  those  she  loves  best ;  they  give  her  time 
for  other  things  and  enable  her  to  bring  what  we  are  accustomed  to 
call  the  lower  functions  of  life  into  the  place  designed  for  them  — 
that  of  co-operating  with  all  other  forces  to  give  life  on  earth  its  best 
conditions,  conditions  that  will  lessen  drudgery,  want,  and  grinding 
misery;  that  will  help  in  building  up  harmony,  peace,  and  happiness 
in  the  home;  that  will  lengthen  the  span  of  human  life;  whatever, 
in  fact,  tends  to  make  life  in  all  its  phases  better  worth  living. 

UTILIZATION    OF   WASTE    PRODUCTS. 

This  is  the  day  and  date  of  the  by-product,  and  the  chemist  is 
abroad  in  the  land,  going  back  over  the  ground,  making  use  of  what 


676          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

was  formerly  wasted,  until  there  is  hardly  a  single  staple  of  human 
industry  taken  from  the  earth  that  he  cannot  duplicate  with  materials 
gathered  from  some  despised  refuse. 

The  scales  of  fish  such  as  "menhaden"  and  "  alewives "  are 
not  in  themselves  attractive,  but  they  are  worth  #1.25  a  pound,  and 
under  the  magic  influences  of  a  French  chemist  appear  as  pearls  to 
adorn  the  neck  of  beauty.  The  Lucifer  match,  first  made  in  1833, 
uses  phosphorus  largely  obtained  from  old  bones.  In  Paris  a  large  pit 
is  prepared  into  which  the  carcasses  of  animals  are  thrown  and  innumer- 
able rats  soon  clean  the  bones,  which  are  then  used  in  making  phos- 
phorus. The  hoofs  are  used  in  the  manufacture  of  glue,  and  from 
time  to  time  the  surplus  of  rats  are  killed,  their  skins  made  into 
"kid"  gloves,  and  their  tendons  and  bones  boiled  to  furnish  the 
gelatin  wrappers  for  bonbons. 

In  1871  a  refrigerator  was  mounted  on  car  wheels,  filled  with 
dressed  beef,  and  started  for  an  Eastern  market,  where  it  arrived  in 
good  condition.  Its  success  revolutionized  an  industry,  for  it  was 
cheaper  to  slaughter  the  cattle  and  ship  the  edible  portions  wherever 
needed  than  to  ship  the  cattle  alive.  Further,  it  insured  a  better 
quality  of  meat. 

What  Becomes  of  the  Steer.  Organized  concentration  means 
economy,  and  large  packing  houses  rendered  possible  the  utilization 
of  many  waste  products.  A  steer  just  off  the  plains,  weighing  1500 
pounds,  furnishes  about  825  pounds  of  dressed  beef.  The  horns  are 
converted  into  combs,  buttons,  and  hairpins.  The  hard  shin  bone 
is  made  into  knife  and  tooth  brush  handles,  buttons,  and  bone 
ornaments.  The  hoof  is  made  into  hairpins  and  buttons.  The 
hide  goes  to  the  tanner.  The  hair  is  made  into  insulating  felt  or 
sold  to  the  plasterer.  The  feet,  knuckles,  hide,  clippings,  sinews, 
and  small  bones  are  made  into  glue,  gelatin,  isinglass,  neat's-foot  oil. 
The  tail  goes  to  the  soup  and  the  tuft  of  hair  is  used  in  mattresses. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


MISCELLANEOUS.  677 

The  tallow  and  grease  are  made  into  toilet  and  laundry  soaps,  washing 
powder,  and  all  grades  of  glycerin.  The  blood  is  made  into  buttons 
or  used  to  refine  sugar;  and  all  waste  of  a  nitrogenous  character  from 
the  different  parts  of  the  carcass  is  taken  to  the  fertilizer  works  and 
converted  into  fertilizers,  stock  and  poultry  foods,  phosphorous 
acid,  phosphorus,  boneblack,  black  pigment,  sulphate  of  ammonia, 
bone  oil,  and  many  other  products.  It  once  cost  the  packers  of 
Chicago  $30,000  a  year  to  remove  and  destroy  the  undigested  food 
found  in  the  stomachs  of  animals  slaughtered  there,  and  now  it  is 
made  into  paper. 

The  pig's  bristles  are  made  into  brushes  and  his  stomach  and 
pancreas  go  to  the  laboratory  and  are  made  into  pepsins,  pancreatins, 
and  other  medicines.  The  wool  is  taken  off  the  sheep  pelts,  cleaned, 
and  sold  to  woolen  goods  and  felt  manufacturers.  The  skin  is  tanned 
and  made  into  leather.  The  thyroids  and  some  other  glands  are 
made  into  medicines. 

Such  is  the  system  employed  ^by  the  late  Philip  D.  Armour. 
Everything  was  utilized  under  the  supervision  of 'expert  chemists 
working  in  well  equipped  laboratories;  the  cost  of  food  was  reduced, 
and  all  portions  of  the  animal  not  used  for  food,  clothes,  glue,  soap, 
or  in  the  arts  and  sciences  were  returned  to  the  farm  as  fertilizers,  to 
aid  in  growing  more  grain  to  feed  more  live  stock.  Small  wonder 
that  so  great  and  so  well  organized  a  business  made  money  for  him. 

Cotton  Seed.  With  every  pound  of  cotton  fiber  there  is  produced 
two  pounds  of  cotton  seed,  and  this  product,  formerly  despised,  now 
threatens  to  rival  petroleum  in  the  multiplicity  of  its  uses.  The 
seed  is  first  ginned  to  remove  the  "  crapo  cotton,"  a-short,  fine  fiber 
highly  prized  in  making  gun  cotton ;  it  next  passes  between  rollers 
which  crack  and  remove  the  hulls  from  the  meats.  One  half  the 
hulls  furnishes  sufficient  fuel  to  run  the  mill  and  the  remainder  is  sold 
as  food  for  cattle.  The  ashes  from  the  hulls  burned  at  the  mill 


678  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

furnish  lye  or  caustic  acid  to  refine  the  oil.  The  meats  are  passed 
through  rolls,  which  reduce  them  to  a  pasty  mass  and  are  then  cooked 
so  that  the  oil  can  be  more  easily  extracted.  They  are  then  placed 
in  bags  within  the  press  and  the  oil  squeezed  out,  leaving  behind  oil 
cake,  which  is  ground  and  sold  as  oil  meal,  even  then  worth  more  for 
cattle  food  than  corn. 

As  a  cattle  food,  cotton  seed  meal  will  produce  41  pounds  of 
lean  beef  as  against  31  pounds  for  bran,  22  pounds  for  peas,  12 
pounds  for  corn,  and  1 1  pounds  for  rye.  As  a  fat  producer  a  given 
quantity  gives  57  pounds  for  cotton  seed,  54  pounds  for  bran,  50 
pounds  for  peas,  68  pounds  for  corn,  72  pounds  for  rye,  and  50 
pounds  for  hay. 

The  by-products  of  cotton  seed  have  been  so  thoroughly  utilized 
that  one  investigator  declares  they  have  added  $1.25  an  acre  to  the 
value  of  cotton  lands  and  detracted  $1.65  an  acre  from  the  value  of 
corn  lands. 

The  Oil  has  Many  Uses.  Shipped  to  Europe  it  returns  as  "  best 
olive  oil."  Mixed  with  beef-stearin  (another  waste  product)  to 
harden  it,  it  becomes  "  pure  lard,"  and  government  tests  have  shown 
that  its  food  value  is  fully  as  high  as  hog  lard  with  less  liability  to 
become  rancid.  As  an  illuminant  it  ranks  between  sperm  oil  and 
lard  oil.  It  burns  well  in  the  miner's  lamp  and  is  largely  used  for 
that  purpose,  but  is  not  good  for  paints  or  lubrication.  It  is  largely 
used  in  soap  making  and  in  advertising  one  popular  brand  (Ivory)  the 
fact  is  stated  that  it  is  made  from  pure  cotton  seed  oil.  Mixed  with 
1 8  per  cent,  of  crude  india  rubber  it  makes  a  good  imitation  and  is 
used  for  cheap  bicycle  tires.  The  manufactured  products  from  one 
ton  of  cotton  seed  are  worth  about  $20,  and  the  field  of  usefulness 
is  widening. 

Coal  tar  is  a  thick  black  sticky  compound  obtained  in  the  manu- 
facture of  illuminating  gas  from  coal.  For  many  years  it  was  an  in- 


MISCELLANEOUS.  679 

sufferable  nuisance,  with  its  offensive  odor,  and  was  surreptitiously 
dumped  into  rivers  to  get  it  out  of  the  way.  It  is  not  strictly  accu- 
rate to  say  that  the  coal  tar  colors,  saccharin,  etc.,  are  contained  in  coal 
tar,  but  rather  that  they  are  made  from  things  derived  from  it.  No 
other  article  furnishes  so  many  useful  products.  As  an  illustration, 
it  may  be  likened  to  a  long  word  which  the  chemist  resolves  into 
letters  with  which  he  spells  many  other  words,  just  as  the  letters 
"a,"  "  t,"  and  "  r,"  may  be  arranged  to  mean  "  rat,"  "tar,"  and 
"art."  Almost  any  substance  on  the  earth  derived  from  a  vegetable 
product  can  be  duplicated  by  the  chemist  with  some  coal  tar  deriva- 
tive. The  U.  S.  Dispensatory  credits  coal  tar  with  derivatives  as 
follows:  13  solids,  40  liquids,  16  illuminating  gases,  3  heating  gases, 
and  ten  or  a  dozen  other  things  classed  as  impurities.  From  it  are 
made  saccharin,  a  substance  300  times  sweeter  than  sugar;  picric 
acid,  from  which  the  famous  lyddite  explosive  is  made;  and  artificial 
flavoring  extracts  counterfeiting  so  cleverly  almost  any  flavor  that 
exists  in  nature  that  only  an  expert  taste  can  detect  the  difference. 
It  furnishes  perfumes  that  cannot  be  distinguished  from  heliotrope, 
queen  of  the  meadows,  cinnamon,  bitter  almonds,  wintergreen, 
thymol,  etc.  Some  coloring  materials  that  were  so  transitory  as  to 
be  thought  worthless  are  now  indispensable  for  tinting  photographic 
plates  for  colored  photography.  Among  the  drugs  made  from  it  are 
phenacetin,  antipyrin,  antifebrin,  quinine,  exalgine,  hyponol,  sul- 
phonal,  and  so  many  others  that  the  modern  physician  would  find.it 
hard  to  name  all  his  medicines  that  are  "  coal  tar  derivatives." 

The  coal  tar  colors  are  now  more  important  than  the  natural 
ones  and  constitute  four  distinct  classes:  the  aniline,  the  phenol,  the 
azocoloring  matter,  and  the  anthracene  series,  in  all  comprising  more 
than  2000  different  shades.  In  1881  Prof.  V.  Bayer  produced  indigo 
by  making  it  from  its  chemical  constituents,  but  his  experiment  was 
too  costly.  Other  German  chemists  took  the  hint  and  continued 


680         THE  MAEVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

the  researches.  To-day  one  company  in  Baden  annually  manufac- 
tures as  much  indigo  from  coal  tar  as  could  be  produced  from  250,000 
acres  of  land  in  India.  Indigo  is  the  chief  industry  of  the  province 
of  Bengal,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  families  depend  upon  it  for 
existence.  If  the  land  can  be  made  to  produce  food,  all  the  better 
for  the  natives. 

Kerosene  is  but  one  of  the  numerous  products  of  petroleum,  and 
the  rest  form  such  a  list  one  might  think  it  a  cousin  of  coal  tar. 
Paraffin,  vaseline,  cosmoline,  rhigolene  (an  anaesthetic),  cymogene 
(used  in  ice  machines),  gasoline,  lubricating  oil,  fuel,  benzine,  asphalt, 
etc.,  chewing  gum,  aniline  dyes,  and  several  medicines  are  but  a  part 
of  the  list,  and  the  end  is  not  yet. 

Corn,  though  not  a  waste  product,  now  has  other  uses  than  to 
make  whisky  and  pork.  Glucose,  made  from  it,  is  converted  into 
a  very  good  substitute  for  rubber  for  some  uses.  From  the  pith  of 
the  corn  stalks  cellulose  for  the  water  line  belts  of  battle  ships  is 
made,  and  as  paper  can  be  made  from  anything  that  has  a  fiber,  the 
husks  and  stalks  of  the  corn  can  be  used  for  that  purpose. 

Improved  methods  have  made  it  possible  to  work  over  the  waste 
heaps  or  "  tailings"  from  gold  mines  worked  years  ago.  When  a 
roof  was  put  on  the  mint  in  Philadelphia  the  leaden  covering  of  the 
old  roof  was  melted  and  yielded  $827  worth  of  gold  and  silver  de- 
posited there  by  invisible  fumes  arising  from  the  furnace.  A  wooden 
floor  used  for  years  in  the  establishment  of  one  of  the  largest  watch- 
case  making  firms  of  New  York  city  was  burned  and  yielded  $67,- 
ooo  worth  of  gold. 

Seaweed  or  kelp,  once  considered  one  of  nature's  waste  products, 
is  a  source  of  wealth.  Each  ton  will  produce  8  pounds  of  iodine, 
several  gallons  of  volatile  oil,  three  or  four  gallons  of  naphtha,  from 
150  to  300  pounds  of  ammonia  sulphate,  and  considerable  quantities 
of  potassium  chloride.  It  also  furnishes  products  used  for  food, 
drink,  and  medicine,  and  can  be  made  into  vegetable  isinglass. 


MISCELLANEOUS.  68 1 

Blast  furnaces  are  now  charged  with  extravagance.  Carefully 
conducted  tests  in  England  have  shown  that  blast  furnace  gases 
formerly  allowed  to  escape  will  in  the  cylinder  of  a  gas  engine  furnish 
a  horse-power-hour  from  every  100  to  120  cubic  feet  of  gas,  and  that 
the  average  blast  furnace  of  Great  Britain  wastes  14,000  horse 
power  a  week.  In  other  words,  if  the  power  were  economically  em- 
ployed it  would  be  worth  more  than  the  iron  produced.  Germany 
has  become  aroused  and  is  putting  in  gas  engines,  converting  the 
waste  into  electricity,  and  using  the  latter  for  every  possible  practi- 
cable purpose. 

Slag  from  blast  furnaces  is  made  into  bricks,  paving-stone,  tile, 
commercial  fertilizer,  wool;  and  the  end  is  not  yet,  for  it  contains 
from  55  per  cent,  to  75  per  cent,  of  pure  oxygen.  So  valuable  has 
the  fertilizer  proved  that  several  large  steel  plants  have  been  located 
in  the  midst  of  the  purely  agricultural  portions  of  Germany. 

Coke  furnaces  are  also  forced  to  plead  guilty  to  the  charge  of 
wasteful  extravagance.  It  is  estimated  that  each  ton  of  coke  made 
by  the  beehive  method  gives  off  4000  cubic  feet  of  gas  that  is 
wasted.  In  addition  there  are  20  pounds  of  ammonia  sulphate  and 
from  40  to  100  hundred  pounds  of  coal  tar.  Germany  has  a  system 
of  coking  that  utilizes  these  by-products  to  such  an  extent  that 
their  value  more  than  pays  for  coking  the  coal,  while  it  is  estimated 
that  $20,000  a  day  that  might  be  saved  goes  up  in  smoke  in  the  coke 
regions  of  western  Pennsylvania. 

HOW  TO  MAKE  AND  PATENT  AN  INVENTION. 
Senator  Platt  of  Connecticut  has  said:  "Of  the  seven  wonders  of 
the  ancient  world  only  one,  the  lighthouse  of  Pharos,  was  for  human 
good.  The  seven  wonders  of  the  modern  world,  the  cotton  gin, 
adaptation  of  steam  to  methods  of  transportation,  appliances  of  elec- 
tricity in  business  pursuits,  harvesters,  the  modern  printing  press, 


682  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

the  Bigelow  loom,  and  the  sewing  machine,  are  all  for  the  benefit  of 
mankind.  The  cotton  gin  and  the  sewing  machine  have  given  the 
human  body  a  new  skin.  The  steam  engine  is  the  breath  and 
muscles,  and  the  telegraph  the  nervous  system  of  the  body  politic. 
In  the  production  of  the  electric  light  man  has  come  nearer  to 
creation  than  anywhere  else.  The  epoch  of  news  came  in  with  the 
Hoe  press,  a  new  dimension  for  cities  with  the  vertical  railway, —  the 
elevator, —  and  the  era  of  cheap  food  with  McCormick's  reaper. 
The  typewriter  is  the  sewing  machine  of  thought  and  introduces  an 
era  of  legible  manuscript." 

The  man  with  an  original  idea  has  a  commodity  which  the  world 
needs  and  he  has  a  right  to  demand  and  receive  payment  for  it. 
Many  a  man  lives  who  has  in  his  mind  a  vague  idea  of  some  device 
he  thinks  patentable  and  from  which  he  believes  he  could  reap  a 
fortune.  The  majority  of  these  dreams  never  assume  tangible  form. 
Some  die  in  the  attempt  to  give  them  practical  shape ;  others  pass 
through  the  preliminary  stages  successfully  and  are  rejected  by  the 
Patent  Office.  The  sifting  process  of  the  Patent  Office  disposes  of 
many.  However,  rather  more  than  half  the  applications  pass  the 
final  inspection  and  a  limited  number  of  these  actually  make  fortunes 
for  their  owners.  The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  carrying  inventions 
to  their  completeness  suppress  many  visionaries  with  their  impracti- 
cable schemes  but  they  also  bury  under  some  worthy  inventions. 
The  latter  are  too  valuable  to  be  lost  and  it  would  be  better  to  in- 
spect a  hundred  useless  ideas  than  to  lose  a  single  worthy  one. 
Invention  is  an  erratic  faculty.  The  instruments  it  uses  are  common 
to  all,  but  it  follows  no  prescribed  rules  of  practice  with  respect  to 
time,  place,  or  circumstance.  Some  of  the  best  products  of  inventive 
genius  have  appeared  in  the  most  unexpected  places  and  probably 
always  will. 

Infringement  Suits.      On  May  19,  1899,  the  heirs  of  William  A. 


MISCELLANEOUS.  683 

Brickill  were  awarded  $894,633  for  an  infringement  suit  against  the 
city  of  New  York,  which  had  been  in  litigation  twenty-nine  years. 
Brickill  was  a  foreman  in  the  New  York  fire  department  and  patented 
a  feed  water  heater  for  steam  fire  engines  in  1868,  which  was  adopted 
by  the  city.  On  leaving  the  department  he  asked  the  city  to  pay 
for  his  device.  The  authorities  contended  that  he  did  the  work 
while  in  the  employ  of  the  city.  The  decision  is  important,  for  the 
courts  have  decided  that  employers  are  not  entitled  to  the  inventions 
of  employees  unless  there  is  a  special  contract  to  that  effect. 

In  1900  another  suit  of  about  thirty  years  standing  was  decided 
against  the  city  and  $818,074.72  awarded  the  plaintiff  for  a  "  relief- 
valve"  that  would  enable  a  fire-engine  pump  to  run  at  full  speed  no 
matter  how  many  hose  pipes  were  connected  to  lead  off  the  water. 
The  city  had  adopted  the  valve  but  regarded  the  royalties  asked  as 
excessive.  Thirty  years  of  litigation  ensued,  resulting  in  a  verdict 
against  the  city,  for  it  was  shown  that  the  saving  in  hose  amounted 
to  $183,394.32  ;  the  saving  in  labor,  $606,344;  and  the  saving  in 
repairs,  $28,336. 

Profitable  Inventions.  Some  patents  are  readily  salable.  The 
German  government  paid  the  Strowger  Automatic  Telephone  Ex- 
change of  Chicago  $500,000  for  the  patents  and  right  to  manufacture 
and  use  their  automatic  switch. 

One  of  the  striking  peculiarities  of  inventions  is  that  the  profit  to 
the  inventor  is  so  often  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  seeming  value 
of  his  idea.  Eli  Whitney  lost  money  perfecting  the  cotton  gin,  but 
a  patent  for  a  particular  kind  of  fastening  for  kid  gloves  has  brought 
its  owner  several  hundred  thousand  dollars.  A  collar  clasp  brings 
the  owner  of  its  patent  a  royalty  of  $20,000  a  year,  while  a  peculiar 
form  of  sleeve  button  which  struck  the  popular  fancy  brought  the 
owner  of  that  patent  $50,000  in  five  years.  The  roller  skate  made 
$1,000,000  for  its  owners,  copper  tips  for  children's  shoes  and  gimlet 


684  THE    MARVELS   OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

pointed  screws  paid  well.  The  man  who  discovered  that  a  candle  if 
tapered  at  the  end  would  fit  securely  into  its  holder,  patented  the 
idea  and  afterwards  founded  the  largest  candle  factory  in  the  world. 
Improvements  in  umbrellas  netted  Samuel  Fox  at  least  half  a  million 
pounds.  Fortunes  are  to  be  made  in  small  and  apparently  insignifi- 
cant common  things.  A  man  may  have  an  invention  which 
seems  to  him  of  little  practical  value,  yet  it  may  be  the  very  thing 
the  world  wants  badly  enough  to  give  a  fortune  in  exchange  for  it. 

"  A  patent  may  be  obtained  by  any  person  who  has  invented  or 
discovered  any  new  and  useful  art,  machine,  manufacture,  or  compo- 
sition of  matter,  or  any  new  and  useful  improvement  thereof,  not 
known  or  used  by  others  in  this  country,  and  not  patented  or 
described  in  any  printed  publication  in  this  or  any  foreign  country 
before  his  invention  or  discovery  thereof,  and  not  in  public  use  or  on 
sale  in  the  United  States  for  more  than  two  years  prior  to  his  appli- 
cation, unless  the  same  is  proved  to  have  been  abandoned. 

"  A  patent  may  also  be  obtained  by  any  person  who,  by  his  own 
industry,  genius,  efforts,  and  expense,  has  invented  and  produced 
any  new  and  original  design  for  a  manufacture,  bust,  statue,  alto- 
relievo,  or  bas-relief;  any  new  and  original  design  for  the  printing  of 
woolen,  silk,  cotton,  or  other  fabrics ;  any  new  and  original  impres- 
sion, ornament,  pattern,  print,  or  picture  to  be  printed,  painted, 
cast,  or  otherwise  placed  on  or  worked  into  any  article  of  manufac- 
ture ;  or  any  new,  useful,  and  original  shape  or  configuration  of  any 
article  of  manufacture,  the  same  not  having  been  known  or  used  by 
others  before  his  invention  or  production  thereof,  nor  patented  nor 
described  in  any  printed  publication. 

"  The  applicant,  if  the  inventor,  must  make  oath  or  affirmation 
that  he  does  verily  believe  himself  to  be  the  original  and  first  in- 
ventor or  discoverer  of  the  art,  machine,  manufacture,  composition, 
or  improvement  for  which  he  solicits  a  patent,  that  he  does  not  know 


MISCELLANEOUS.  685 

and  does  not  believe  that  the  same  was  ever  before  known  or  used, 
and  shall  state  of  what  country  he  is  a  citizen  and  where  he  resides."* 

Inventions  usually  arise  to  fill  some  want.  An  inventor  sees 
some  work  done,  or  is  engaged  in  doing  it,  and  a  plan  occurs  to  him 
by  which  it  could  be  done  better,  quicker,  or  cheaper;  or,  using  or 
seeing  used  some  piece  of  machinery,  possibilities  of  improvements 
in  it  present  themselves  to  his  mind.  To  avoid  hopeless  confusion  it 
has  been  found  necessary  for  every  patent  office  to  adopt  certain 
stringent  rules.  It  is  with  the  hope  of  furnishing  to  some  would-be 
inventor  not  familiar  with  the  subject  some  knowledge  of  the  course 
of  procedure  required  that  this  article  is  presented.  If  the  inventor 
will  carefully  ascertain  what  has  been  done  by  others  in  the  line  on 
which  he  is  working,  much  valuable  time  and  effort  can  often  be 
saved,  for  there  may  be  later  and  better  methods  than  those  he  has 
seen  employed  or  later  and  better  machinery  may  be  actually  on  the 
market.  The  quickest  and  best  way  to  obtain  this  information  is  to 
consult  an  honest  and  capable  (the  species  is  not  extinct)  patent 
attorney,  a  man  whose  professional  training  fits  him  to  quickly 
secure  for  the  inventor  the  accurate  information  he  needs.  The 
attorney  will  usually  furnish  this  for  a  small  fee,  for  if  the  idea  of  his 
client  is  patentable  he  knows  that  he  stands  a  good  chance  of  having 
his  services  retained  when  the  idea  is  ripe  for  patenting. 

The  experienced  solicitor  can  avoid  pitfalls  and  take  advantage 
of  opportunities  which  would  be  unseen  by  the  inexperienced  in- 
ventor; can  point  out  complications,  infringements,  suggest  mechan- 
ical equivalents  —  a  different  manner  of  arriving  at  the  same  result  — 
and  aid  in  steering  clear  of  many  difficulties.  After  finding  that  the 
proposed  invention  is  probably  patentable  the  next  step  js  to  perfect 
it,  for  the  first  conception  is  usually  rather  crude  and  incomplete  in 
detail,  and  changes  are  frequently  necessary  to  avoid  infringement 


*Rules  of  Practice  in  United  States  Patent  Office. 


686  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

on  another  patent.  If  the  device  is  of  such  a  nature  that  absolute 
secrecy  is  impossible  in  the  necessary  tests,  the  safety  of  the  inven- 
tion may  be  protected  by  filing  a  "caveat." 

A  caveat  is  in  no  sense  a  patent  for  a  limited  term,  but  entitles 
the  inventor  for  one  year  to  receive  from  the  Patent  Office  notice  of 
any  application  for  patent  likely  to  interfere  with  his  right.  "The 
caveat  may  be  renewed,  on  request  in  writing,  by  the  payment  of  a 
second  caveat  fee  of  ten  dollars,  and  it  will  continue  in  force  for  one 
year  from  the  date  of  the  payment  of  such  second  fee.  Subsequent 
renewals  may  be  made  with  like  effect."  A  caveat  gives  the  in- 
ventor more  time  in  which  to  perfect  his  device  before  making  final 
application  for  patent.  "Any  citizen  of  the  United  States,  or  alien 
who  has  resided  in  the  United  States  one  year  next  preceding  the 
filing  of  his  caveat,  and  has  made  oath  of  his  intention  to  become  a 
citizen,  and  who,  having  made  a  new  invention  or  discovery,  desires 
further  time  to  mature  the  same,  may,  upon  the  payment  of  a  govern- 
ment fee  of  ten  dollars,  file  in  the  Patent  Office  what  is  known  as  a 
caveat.  The  caveat  must  clearly  set  forth  the  object  of  the  supposed 
invention  and  its  distinguishing  characteristics.  Caveat  papers,  are 
filed  in  the  confidential  archives  of  the  Patent  Office."*  The  ad- 
vantage in  this  provision  is  that  it  aids  in  establishing  the  question 
of  priority  in  case  the  ensuing  patent  should  ever  be  contested.  It 
also  lengthens  the  profitable  life  of  the  patent  and  enables  the  in- 
ventor to  get  it  in  working  condition  before  placing  it  on  the  market. 

The  next  thing  to  do  is  to  make  accurate  drawings  and  a  work- 
ing model  (if  the  invention  is  one  which  can  be  demonstrated  by  a 
model),  and  make  sure  that  the  invention  will  do  all  that  is  claimed 
for  it.  Never  apply  for  a  patent  until  this  has  been  done  and  the 
practicability  of  the  invention  has  been  established. 

It  is  better  to  intrust  the  application  to  a  patent  solicitor,  but  if 

*  "  Patents."  Hawson  and  Hawson. 


MISCELLANEOUS.  687 

the  inventor  wishes  to  carry  it  through  unaided  he  can  get  very  com- 
plete and  explicit  directions  published  under  the  title  of  "  Rules  of 
Practice  in  the  United  States  Patent  Office,"  and  which  can  be  ob- 
tained from  that  office,  in  Washington,  D.  C. 

The  application  for  a  patent  requires  a  written  specification, 
drawings  (no  model,  unless  asked  for  by  the  examiner),  an  oath  of 
invention,  and  the  payment  of  the  first  government  fee  of  fifteen 
dollars. 

"The  following  order  of  arrangement  should  be  observed  in 
framing  the  specifications :  — 

"i.  Preamble  stating  the  name  and  residence  of  the  applicant, 
the  title  of  the  invention,  and,  if  the  invention  has  been  patented 
in  any  country,  the  country  or  countries  in  which  it  has  been  so 
patented  and  the  date  and  number  of  each  patent. 

"2.  General  statement  of  the  object  and  nature  of  the  inven- 
tion. 

"3.  Brief  description  of  the  several  views  of  the  drawings  (if 
the  invention  admits  of  such  illustration). 

"  4.      Detailed  description. 

"5.      Claim  or  claims. 

"6.      Signature  of  the  inventor. 

"  7.      Signatures  of  two  witnesses. 

"The  specifications  must  be  signed  by  the  inventor  or  by  his 
executor  or  administrator,  and  the  signature  must  be  attested  by 
two  witnesses."  * 

"The  specifications  and  claims  form  the  most  important  part  of 
an  application  for  a  patent,  and  the  part  for  which,  most  partic- 
ularly, inventors  find  the  services  of  a  competent  solicitor  not  only 
desirable,  but  necessary.  If  the  specification  incorrectly  or  insuffi- 
ciently describes  the  invention,  so  that  persons  skilled  in  the  art 


*  Rules  of  Practice  in  United  States  Patent  Office. 


688  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN   MECHANISM. 

cannot,  from  the  description,  practically  make  and  use  the  invention, 
or  if  it  fails  to  particularly  point  out  what  part  of  the  matter 
described  the  patentee  claims  as  his  own  invention,  then  the  patentee 
has  failed  to  comply  with  the  conditions  and  requirements  of  the 
law,  and  his  patent  is  bad.  As  to  the  claim,  it  is  the  patentee's  own 
definition  of  his  rights,  by  which  he  must  stand  or  fall.  The  law 
will  not  give  him  more  than  he  has  chosen  to  claim,  nor  help  him  out 
if  he  has  not  claimed  all  that  he  might  have  done.  So  far  as  ascer- 
taining and  defining  the  extent  of  the  patentee's  right  is  concerned, 
it  is  his  claim  which  constitutes  the  patent."  * 

The  applicant  must  not  expect  that  his  claim  will  receive  immedi- 
ate attention,  for  it  will  be  considered  in  its  regular  order.  If,  when 
it  has  been  passed  upon  by  the  primary  examiner,  the  matter 
claimed  appears  to  be  new,  the  applicant  or  the  solicitor  who  repre- 
sents him  will  be  notified  that  the  application  is  "  allowed,"  and  that 
a  patent  will  be  issued  upon  the  payment  of  the  further  government 
fee  of  twenty  dollars,  provided  it  be  paid  within  six  months.  From 
the  payment  of  this  last  fee  till  the  patent  is  actually  issued  three 
weeks  usually  elapses.  The  total  expense  is  $35.00  for  the  govern- 
ment fees,  plus  the  fee  charged  by  the  solicitor,  if  one  be  employed. 

If  the  primary  examiner  considers  that  substantially  the  same 
thing  as  that  claimed  by  the  applicant  has  been  previously  patented 
or  described  in  a  printed  publication,  he  reports  adversely  to  the 
commissioner,  who  sends  a  letter  of  rejection  to  the  applicant  or 
solicitor,  stating  the  exact  cause  for  the  rejection.  An  appeal  may 
then  be  taken  to  the  examiners-in-chief  and  from  their  decision  to 
the  Commissioner  of  Patents  and  from  his  decision  to  the  Superior 
Court  of  the  District  of  Columbia.  If  the  applicant  wishes  to  push 
his  claim  he  will  do  well  to  intrust  his  case  to  a  competent  lawyer. 

When  a  United  States  patent  has  been  granted,  its  duration  is 

*"  Patents."  Hawson  and  Hawson. 


MISCELLANEOUS.  689 

4 'seventeen  years  from  the  date  of  issue,  unless  the  inventor  has, 
before  the  issue  of  the  United  States  patent,  patented  his  invention 
or  caused  or  allowed  it  to  be  patented  in  a  foreign  country.  In  that 
case  the  United  States  patent  will  expire  with  the  foreign  patent; 
or,  if  there  be  more  than  one,  with  that  having  the  shortest  term." 

Civilization  rose  from  savagery  and  depends  for  its  very  exist- 
ence upon  the  encouragement  and  development  of  the  inventive 
faculties.  He  is  a  benefactor  of  mankind  who  devises  some  method 
whereby  any  branch  of  human  labor  may  be  made  less  irksome  or 
more  productive.  In  return  for  the  security  in  the  possession  of 
life,  liberty,  and  property  which  society  gives  to  him  the  inventor 
owes  a  debt  which  he  should  repay  by  putting  his  invention  in  shape 
to  be  of  practical  use.  On  the  other  hand,  society  recognizes  its 
debt  to  the  inventor  and  has  provided  a  method  whereby  he  may 
receive  payment  for  his  invention  if  it  is  useful  to  society.  This 
system  has  two  good  effects:  the  invention  is  secured  for  the  use  of 
the  people  and  it  is  secured  in  its  best  possible  form,  for  the  in- 
ventor's financial  success  depending  upon  the  merits  of  the  article  and 
its  general  use,  he  will  spare  no  pains  to  make  it  as  good  as  he  can. 
The  United  States  Patent  System  does  not  pay  the  inventor  for  his 
invention,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  army  of  inventors  pay  all  the 
expenses  of  the  Patent  System.  This  system  has  for  its  sole  object 
encouragement  of  invention  by  affording  protection  to  the  inventor, 
his  heirs,  or  assigns,  in  the  unmolested  use  and  sale  of  the  invention 
for  a  term  of  years  in  which  he  may  amass  a  fortune  if  the  invention 
be  really  valuable.  "A  United  States  patent  is  a  contract.  The 
parties  to  it  are  the  inventor  on  the  one  hand  and  the  people  of  the 
United  States  on  the  other.  The  inventor,  by  a  public  record,  in- 
forms the  people  concerning  a  useful  discovery  which  he  has  made, 
which  must  be  original  with  him  and  new  in  the  United  States.  In 
return  the  people,  by  their  letters  patent,  secure  to  him  the  exclu- 


690          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

sive  right  to  make,  to  use,  and  to  sell  his  invention  for  a  limited 
number  of  years.  At  the,  end  of  that  period  the  contract  terminates 
and  the  discovery  belongs  to  all  the  people  forever.  Whether  the 
thing  contrived  is  to  underlie  a  great  industry,  or  whether  it  is 
merely  an  improved  pin,  the  inventor,  to  be  entitled  to  his  patent, 
must  disclose  it  fully  and  without  restriction  or  reservation ;  so  that, 
when  the  patent  term  shall  be  finished,  the  public  may  be  able  to 
make  and  use  the  thing  as  well  as  he  himself  can  make  and  use  it." 

First  Patent.  The  earliest  record  of  any  patent  is  the  one  granted 
by  Edward  III.  of  England  to  "two  friars  and  two  aldermen"  who 
claimed  to  have  discovered  the  philosopher's  stone.  Laws  for  the 
encouragement  of  inventors  gradually  developed  a  patent  system  in 
Great  Britain  and  this  system  has  become  a  parent  to  most  others. 
In  the  American  colonies,  each  colony  for  a  time  had  the  power  to 
grant  patents.  The  first  one  recorded  seems  to  be  that  of  Samuel 
Winslow,  who  in  1641  was  granted  a  ten  years'  patent  by  the  Gen- 
eral Court  of  Massachusetts  on  a  process  of  salt  making.  Since  then 
over  600,000  patents  have  been  issued  in  the  United  States.  The 
first  United  States  patent  law  was  made  April  10,  1791,  but  the 
Patent  Office  was  not  established  until  1836.  The  cost  of  maintain- 
ing the  United  States  Patent  Office  is  about  $1,250,000  annually. 
As  there  are  about  43,000  applications  annually  for  patents  of  which 
26,000  are  granted,  the  fees  of  the  applicants  more  than  pay  the 
expenses  of  the  office. 

Statistics  gathered  by  Edward  W.  Byrn  for  the  Scientific  Ameri- 
can show  that  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century  nine  countries  had 
issued  1,819,906  patents,  of  which  the  United  States  granted  37  per 
cent.  ;  France,  18  per  cent.  ;  Great  Britain,  16  per  cent.  ;  Belgium,  9 
percent.;  Germany,  7  per  cent.;  Austria- Hungary,  5  per  cent.; 
Canada,  4  per  cent.  ;  Italy-Sardinia,  3  per  cent.  ;  and  Spain,  I  per 
cent. 


MISCELLANEOUS.  69! 

Thomas  A.  Edison,  to  whom  more  patents  have  been  issued  than 
to  any  other  inventor  living  or  dead,  says  that  if  he  had  his  life  to 
live  over  again,  he  would  protect  his  inventions  by  secret  processes 
rather  than  by  patents  and  take  his  chances  on  the  results.  The 
reason  he  assigns  is  that  the  delays  incident  to  an  infringement  suit 
allow  the  guilty  party  to  carry  on  the  infringement  with  profit  for 
a  length  of  time  which,  in  many  cases,  has  almost  if  not  quite 
equaled  the  term  of  the  patent,  and  has  thus  virtually  defeated  the 
very  object  for  which  the  patent  was  issued.  The  expense  incident 
to  these  protracted  suits  may  be  so  great  as  to  more  than  exceed  the 
damages  recovered.  Though  the  "secret  process  "  method  might 
be  available  for  much  of  Edison's  work,  implements  simple  in  design 
and  intended  for  general  use  could  not  be  so  protected.  However, 
just  as  necessity  stimulates  invention,  the  urgent  need  of  better 
patent  laws  will  ultimately  bring  the  required  legislation. 

"  The  British  method  is  to  grant,  as  a  matter  of  course,  any 
regular  application  for  a  patent,  no  matter  whether  the  device  has 
been  the  subject  of  a  former  patent  or  not,  and  then  to  leave  the 
patentees  to  fight  out  their  respective  rights  afterwards  in  the 
courts." 

MACHINERY,    LABOR,    AND    WEALTH. 

Denis  Papin  made  a  steamboat  about  two  hundred  years  ago, 
and  started  down  a  German  river  to  go  to  England,  but  he  encoun- 
tered a  prejudice  none  the  less  strong  because  mistaken,  for  the  boat- 
men, who  plainly  saw  that  this  innovation  meant  the  loss  of  part  of 
their  livelihood,  fell  upon  him,  destroyed  his  boat  and  the  inventor 
barely  escaped  with  his  life.  Such  was  the  first  appearance  of  the 
power  destined  to  revolutionize  the  industrial  world,  and  such  the 
reception  it  encountered.  This  spirit  has  been  too  often  exhibited 
and  has  not  yet  wholly  disappeared.  The  experiences  of  the  in- 
ventors of  cotton  machinery  have  already  been  detailed.  One  of  the 


692          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

greatest  strikes  that  England  has  witnessed  appears  to  have  had  its 
inception  in  the  introduction,  by  Hiram  Maxim,  of  a  number  of  new 
milling  machines  into  the  factories  of  the  famous  Vickers,  Maxim  and 
Co.  The  machines  were  automatic  and  one  man  could  easily  run  six 
or  seven.  The  Trade  Union  declared  that  a  man  must  be  employed 
for  each'machine,  and  a  long  and  bitter  struggle  ensued  destructive 
and  expensive  alike  to  capital  and  labor.  But  as  the  innovation 
increased  the  production  and  reduced  the  cost,  it  won,  as  such  inven- 
tions must  win  in  the  long  run.  Progress  is  an  irresistible  force 
crushing  relentlessly  labor  or  capital  that  recklessly  attempts  to  bar 
its  course.  In  numerous  printing  offices  of  America  a  similar  oppo- 
sition was  shown  toward  typesetting  machines,  but  such  opposition 
has  only  retarded  and  not  prevented  their  introduction. 

Does  Machinery  Displace  Labor  ?  Without  doubt  it  often 
temporarily  deprives  a  workman  of  employment,  but  it  is  no  less  cer- 
tain that  it  sets  in  operation  a  chain  of  industrial  forces  that  in  the 
aggregate  result  in  increased  production  at  lower  price,  and  in  the 
increased  employment  of  labor.  The  man  temporarily  out  of  a  job 
is  not  inclined  to  be  philosophical,  and  the  introduction  of  new 
machinery  frequently  works  great  hardships,  but  the  world  is  chang- 
ing and  demands  that  whatever  is  for  the  greatest  good  shall  be 
brought  to  pass,  even  if  a  few  individuals  must  be  offered  up  to  the 
god  of  progress.  Labor-saving  machinery  has  oftenest  displaced 
labor  of  the  lowest  order  and  has  thus  emancipated  man  from  much 
labor  which  was  hard,  brutal,  and  degrading.  The  age  of  ''main 
strength  and  stupidity  "  has  passed  and  the  workman  is  no  longer  a 
machine,  but  an  intelligent  being,  whose  business  it  is  to  think  and 
to  control  machines. 

Mention  has  been  made  of  the  cotton  gin  and  it  will  not  be 
denied  that  although  it  was  a  labor-saving  machine  it  also  stimulated 
the  employment  of  more  labor  than  any  other  invention  but  the 
steam  engine. 


MISCELLANEOUS.  693 

Prior  to  1830  nearly  all  the  inland  freight  was  hauled  in  wagons 
drawn  by  teams.  With  the  advent  of  the  locomotive  the  labor  and 
capital  so  employed  was  forced  to  seek  new  fields,  but  who  will  con- 
tend that  the  introduction  of  the  locomotive  has  not  benefited  labor? 

A  half  century  ago  saw  the  introduction  of  machinery- into  watch- 
making. Prior  to  that  time  the  work  had  all  been  laboriously  per- 
formed by  hand,  but  soon  American  machine-made  watches  were 
competing  successfully  with  the  best  products  of  Switzerland.  Auto- 
matic machinery,  intelligent  workmen,  skillful  organization,  have 
enabled  two  companies,  the  Waltham  and  Elgin,  to  put  out  millions 
of  watches,  pay  out  millions  of  dollars  to  their  workmen,  and  still 
furnish  timepieces  so  cheaply  that  the  laborer  of  to-day  can  carry  a 
more  accurate  watch  than  could  the  rich  man  of  a  hundred  years  ago. 
The  cheapened  product  has  made  it  possible  to  employ  far  more 
labor  than  the  industry  could  have  supported  had  it  been  confined  to 
hand  labor.  Even  in  a  business  requiring  so  high  a  degree  of  skill 
on  the  part  of  the  workmen  as  watch-making,  rarely  has  the  intro- 
duction of  automatic  machinery  displaced  as  much  labor  as  it  created 
a  demand  for,  and  the  workmen  of  the  Elgin  Company  have  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century  made  better  wages  at  "piece  work"  than  the 
average  market  wages  for  day  work,  while  strikes  among  them  are 
unheard  of  and  the  best  of  feeling  prevails. 

Frequently  an  automatic  machine  is  introduced  that  performs 
only  a  part  of  several  operations  engaging  a  single  workman.  This 
certainly  means  the  employment  of  a  workman  for  each  machine,  an 
increased  product,  and  the  employment  of  additional  workmen  to 
take  care  of  the  product. 

Typesetting  machines  are  not  such  unmitigated  evils  as  com- 
positors feared,  for  the  officers  of  the  Typographical  Union  now 
state  that  in  their  judgment  as  many  persons  are  employed  in  set- 
ting type  as  formerly,  and  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  the  machine 


694  THE   MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

have  given  employment  to  fully  as  many  persons  as  their  introduction 
displaced ;  while  the  stimulus  to  other  branches  has  been  marked, 
cheapening  the  product,  increasing  the  production,  widening  the 
sale,  creating  a  demand  for  more  type,  employing  more  men  to  make 
it,  more  paper,  more  stereotypers. 

Before  the  advent  of  wood  fiber  an  increased  demand  for  paper 
called  forth  that  picturesque  figure,  the  rag  peddler,  who,  with  his 
cart  and  jingling  tin,  was- such  a  familiar  sight  as  he  wended  his  way 
through  the  New  England  and  Middle  states  gathering  an  otherwise 
waste  product. 

Inventions  Create  Occupations.  Inventions  not  only  create  an 
additional  demand  for  labor  but  frequently  create  occupations,  wit- 
ness the  Bell  Telephone  Company,  using  a  quarter  of  a  million 
miles  of  wire  and  furnishing  employment  to  25,000  people.  The 
telegraph,  the  electric  cable,  and  the  locomotive  are  other  good  ex- 
amples. In  1899,  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  reported 
that  there  were  928,924  railway  employees  in  the  United  States 
alone.  When  electric  street  cars  were  put  on  between  Minneapolis 
and  St.  Paul,  carrying  people  every  few  minutes,  it  was  complained 
that  they  had  thrown  men  out  of  employment  on  the  steam  road. 
The  electric  road  did  displace  eight  men  on  the  steam  road,  but  it 
furnished  work  for  65  men  on  the  electric  line. 

Suppose  a  new  line  of  railroad  is  to  be  built  through  the  North- 
west, and  men  of  the  usual  type  now  employed  by  contractors  for 
that  kind  of  work  are  making  "  cuts  "  and  "  fills"  for  the  roadbed. 
The  introduction  of  a  steam  shovel  or  of  a  steam  ditcher  will  neces- 
sarily deprive  some  of  these  men  of  work,  but  it  will  shorten  the 
time  of  the  construction  of  the  road  and  lighten  the  cost,  and  that 
road  when  completed  will  give  employment  to  a  large  army  of 
switchmen,  brakemen,  engineers,  conductors,  telegraphers,  foremen, 
superintendents,  and  managers, —  labor  surely  as  valuable  as  that 


MISCELLANEOUS.  695 

displaced  by  the  steam  shovel.  Settlers  are  waiting  the  completion 
of  the  road,  traffic  is  waiting  for  it,  machine  shops  and  rolling  mills 
are  busy  preparing  its  locomotives  and  steel  rails,  blast  furnaces 
are  glowing,  the  coal  and  ore  for  all  these  operations  is  mined 
and  transported,  and  the  quicker  the  roadbed  can  be  completed 
the  sooner  can  all  these  forces  be  set  to  work.  Does  Machinery 
Displace  Labor? 

Increased  Production.  Seventy  years  ago  ruling  paper  with  a 
quill  and  ruler  took  4800  hours  to  do  what  a  machine  now  does  in 
2^  hours.  The  quill  pen  man  received  $i  a  day,  the  machinist 
$3.50  a  day,  yet  the  labor  cost  is  85  cents  as  against  $4. 

A  modern  printing  press  can  print  96,000  eight-page  papers  in  an 
hour,  while  with  the  best  hand  presses  it  would  take  a  man  and  a 
boy  working  ten  hours  a  day  140  days  to  do  it,  and  the  price  would 
be  prohibitive.  Many  other  illustrations  could  be  cited. 

At  the  Atlanta  Exposition,  not  long  ago,  five  mountaineers  gave 
an  exhibition  of  the  manufacture  of  homespun  cloth  by  the  use  of 
the  hand  card,  the  spinning  wheel,  and  the  hand  loom.  Alongside 
and  in  operation,  was  the  most  modern  machinery  for  doing  the 
same  work  and  each  method  employed  five  persons.  Hand  labor 
produced  8  yards  of  cloth  in  ten  hours  while  machinery  produced  800 
yards  of  better  cloth  in  the  same  length  of  time.  Comment  is  un- 
necessary. 

Does  Increased  Production  Benefit  Mankind  ?  A  farmer,  a 
weaver,  and  a  shoemaker  supply  each  other's  wants,  and  each  in  turn 
produces  a  bushel  of  wheat,  a  yard  of  cloth,  and  a  pair  of  shoes  in  a 
given  length  of  time.  Suppose  each  introduces  improved  tools  that 
double  his  productive  capacity;  then  it  follows  that  in  the  same 
length  of  time  and  without  extra  effort  they  can  be  twice  as  well  fed, 
twice  as  well  shod,  and  twice  as  well  clothed.  If  machinery  increases 
the  output  per  man,  -there  must  be  an  increase  in  the  production, 


696  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

and  as  the  supply  becomes  greater  the  price  falls  and  brings  within 
the  reach  of  the  workmen  many  things  that  were  formerly  considered 
luxuries  while  it  permits  him  to  have  still  more  of  the  common  neces- 
sities. The  workmen  are  in  the  end  the  consumers  of  their  own 
products  and,  as  the  wealth  of  the  world  i-s  increased,  the  workman 
gets  his  share  of  the  increase. 

Machinery  and  Wages.  Labor-saving  machinery  has  been 
used  only  about  125  years  and  it  is  not  strange  that  the  early  writers 
on  economics,  reasoning  from  insufficient  data,  should  arrive  at  erro- 
neous conclusions.  The  relations  of  machinery  to  labor  and  social  bet- 
terment have  been  carefully  studied  and  exhaustive  researches  made 
by  carefully  appointed  experts  in  various  countries,  and  much  more 
accurate  and  extensive  knowledge  is  now  available.  In  the  United 
States  the  Senate  Committee  of  Finance  investigated  2  i  separate  in- 
dustries represented  by  about  100  distinct  establishments  and  rang- 
ing from  1840  to  1891.  Starting  with  the  assumption  that  the 
wages  of  1860  were  fair  average  wages  from  which  all  the  others 
were  to  be  computed,  those  of  1840  stood  82.5  per  cent.  ;  1860,  100 
percent.;  1866,  155.6  per  cent.;  1891,  168.6  per  cent.  In  other 
words  the  wages  of  1891  were  more  than  double  those  of  1840.  The 
average  annual  earnings  of  persons  engaged  in  manufacture  —  men, 
women,  and  children  —  was  for  1850,  $247;  1860,  $289;  1870, 
$302;  1880,  $347;  1890,  $445. 

Experiments  conducted  by  the  British  Department  of  Labor 
and  labor  bureaus  of  continental  Europe  show  the  same  general  up- 
ward tendency  of  wages,  the  countries  ranging  as  follows:  United 
States,  Great  Britain,  France,  Belgium,  and  Germany.  It  is  an  in- 
teresting coincidence  that,  judged  by  patents  issued,  the  countries 
that  have  encouraged  the  improvement  of  labor-saving  machinery 
rank  about  the  same,  viz.  :  United  States,  France,  Great  Britain, 
Belgium,  and  Germany. 


MISCELLANEOUS.  697 

It  appears  that  wages  have,  generally  speaking,  a  constant  up- 
ward tendency.  What  of  the  necessities  of  life?  Similar  experi- 
ments conducted  by  the  Senate  Finance  Committee  show  that  223 
of  the  leading  articles  of  consumption  fell  in  price  from  100  per  cent, 
in  1860  to  94.4  per  cent,  in  1891  ;  then  the  price  and  purchasing 
power  of  labor  in  1891  measured  by  the  price  and  purchasing  power 
of  labor  in  1860  shows  a  gain  of  68  per  cent.  The  wage  earner  further 
shares  in  the  benefit  of  the  invention,  for  the  hours  of  toil  have  been 
shortened  from  12  and  13,  to  8,  9,  and  10  hours  per  day. 

Progress  Sacrifices  Capital.  It  is  true  that  labor-saving  ma- 
chines displace  some  workmen,  although  they  create  a  demand  for 
many  more,  but  such  losses  are  not  confined  to  labor  alone.  "In- 
dustry in  its  march  takes  no  care  of  the  positions  it  overturns  nor  of 
the  distinctions  it  modifies.  It  always  accomplishes  its  work,  which 
is  to  make  better  goods  at  a  lower  price,  to  supply  more  wants 
and  always  those  of  a  better  order,  and  to  secure  for  man  greater 
comforts  and  conveniences,  not  with  regard  for  any  class,  but  having 
in  view  the  whole  human  race.  True  to  its  instinct  it  has  no  senti- 
ment unless  it  is  for  its  own  interest."* 

Marked  changes  in  industry  often  create  a  greater  demand  for 
labor,  yet  are  expensive  to  capital.  The  Bethlehem  Steel  Company 
constructed,  at  a  cost  of  about  a  million  dollars,  the  largest  steam 
hammer  in  the  world.  It  was  hardly  well  in  operation  before  Sir 
Joseph  Whitworth's  method  of  "  fluid  compression"  and  hydraulic 
press  forging  rendered  the  hammer  useless  for  the  purpose  for  which 
it  was  constructed.  Improvements  in  transportation  have  frequently 
caused  locomotives  to  be  thrown  in  the  scrap  heap  for  no  other  reason 
than  that  larger  and  more  powerful  ones  might  be  put  in  their  places. 
The  Kinzua  viaduct  was  recently  rebuilt  at  great  expense,  not  to 
remedy  any  fault  in  construction,  but  because  more  powerful  loco- 


*  Carroll  D.  Wright,  "  Practical  Sociology." 


698  THE   MARVELS    OF   MODERN   MECHANISM. 

I 

motives,   hauling    longer    trains,    imperatively  demanded  a  stronger 

bridge.  When  the  Suez  canal  was  built  it  ruined  many  British  ship 
owners,  who  had  millions  of  dollars  invested  in  the  sailing  trade  with 
Australia,  for  the  canal  shortened  the  route  enough  to  make  it  prac- 
ticable for  steam  vessels.  Every  one  is  familiar  with  the  machinery 
discarded,  not  because  it  is  worn  out,  but  because  it  is  outclassed  by 
improved  machinery. 

Machinery  Increases  Wealth.  The  steam  engine,  labor-saving 
machinery,  and  the  production  of  cheap  steel  have  wondrously  in- 
creased the  wealth  of  the  world.  Steel  is  the  foundation  upon 
which  the  whole  structure  of  civilization  and  industrial  life  is  reared 
and  any  reduction  in  its  cost  or  improvement  in  its  quality  tends  to 
increase  its  use  and  consequent  benefit  to  mankind.  There  is  a  close 
connection  between  the  wealth  of  the  country  and  the  amount  of 
iron  and  steel  it  consumes.  In  the  United  States  the  wealth  per 
capita  in  1820  was  $200,  the  consumption  of  iron  and  steel,  40 
pounds;  wealth  in  1850,  $350,  iron  and  steel,  85  pounds;  wealth  in 
1870,  $700,  iron  and  steel,  175  pounds;  wealth  in  1890,  $1050,  iron 
and  steel,  275  pounds;  wealth  in  1900,  $1350,  iron  and  steel,  375 
pounds.  A  like  relation  is  shown  between  the  wealth  of  the  world 
and  the  steam  power  used.  Mulhall,  the  eminent  statistician,  stated 
in  1896  that  the  United  States  turned  out  25  per  cent,  of  the  manu- 
factured products  of  the  world  with  12  per  cent,  of  the  operatives, 
"  showing  the  great  economy  of  labor  due  to  the  unusual  use  of  im- 
proved machinery." 

Prior  to  the  introduction  of  the  Bessemer  process,  all  nails  were 
made  of  iron  and  largely  by  women,  and  it  was  the  proud  boast  of 
Sir  Henry  Bessemer  that  he  had  lifted  from  slavery  60,000  woman 
nail  makers  of  England.  To-day  steel  nails  are  made  by  machinery, 
and  so  cheaply  that  if  a  carpenter  stops  to  pick  up  a  nail  accidentally 
dropped,  he  wastes  more  time  than  the  nail  is  worth. 


MISCELLANEOUS.  699 

Machinery  and  Savings  Banks.  If  one  may  judge  the  con- 
dition of  the  people  in  moderate  circumstances  by  the  reports  of  the 
savings  banks,  the  states  of  Rhode  Island,  Massachusetts,  Connec- 
ticut, and  New  York,  where  the  factory  system  plays  an  important 
part,  compared  with  the  states  of  Illinois,  Indiana,  Wisconsin,  and 
Minnesota,  where  agriculture  is  the  chief  industry,  furnish  important 
testimony.  Of  the  men,  women,  and  children  of  Massachusetts  53 
per  cent,  are  depositors  in  savings  banks  as  against  0.14  per  cent,  of 
those  of  Wisconsin,  and  New  York  has  nearly  100  times  as  many 
depositors  as  Indiana.  The  following  table  shows  the  number  of 
depositors  in  each  of  the  states  named,  the  average  amount  of  the 
deposit,  and  the  ratio  of  the  depositors  to  the  total  population  :— 

Number  of  Average  Ratio 

Depositors.  Deposit.  of  Depositors. 

Massachusetts 1,491,143  $358.01  53     percent. 

Connecticut 393>*37  442«94  43     percent. 

New  York 2,036,016  452.89  28     percent. 

Rhode  Island 142,096  517.18  33     percent. 

Indiana 21,091  267.93  0.7  per  cent. 

Illinois 208,992  309-95  4     per  cent. 

Wisconsin 2,945  I92-93  0.14  per  cent. 

Minnesota 51.418  234.67  3     percent. 

Many  of  the  Eastern  savings  banks  are  at  a  disadvantage  because 
the  rate  of  interest  in  the  East  is  lower  than  in  the  West.  Con- 
trasted with  such  an  exhibit  is  the  historical  fact  that  prior  to  the 
introduction  of  the  factory  system  in  England,  pauperism  was  so 
great  that  one  fourth  of  the  expenses  of  the  government  went  to 
their  support,  and  that  since  that  time  it  has  been  constantly  on  the 
decline. 

Division  of  Wealth.  Mulhall  estimates  that  the  last  decade  has 
made  an  addition  of  $25,000,000,000  to  the  wealth  of  the  United 
States,  a  saving  unheard  of  in  the  history  of  the  human  race,  and 
Mr.  Powers,  statistician  of  the  twelfth  census,  says  that  this  is  a 


7OO          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

greater  saving  than  all  the  people  of  this  continent  were  able  to 
make  from  the  time  it  was  discovered  by  Columbus  to  the  breaking 
out  of  the  Civil  War,  and  that  the  saving  represents  more  houses, 
buildings,  machinery,  tools,  implements,  clothes,  and  means  of  trans- 
portation than  the  whole  human  race  was  able  to  add  to  its  savings 
from  the  time  of  Adam  to  the  Declaration  of  American  Independence. 
It  is  not  true  that  the  rich  are  growing  richer  and  the  poor  poorer. 
The  wage  earner  is  better  housed,  better  fed,  better  clothed,  better 
educated  than  ever  before  and  enjoys  advantages  of  civilization  un- 
known to  employers  even  a  generation  ago,  and  has  comforts  that 
kings  of  a  century  ago  were  unable  to  command.  In  1829  nine  of 
the  heaviest  taxpayers  of  Boston  owned  over  8  per  cent,  of  the  wealth 
of  the  city.  In  1 899  the  nine  heaviest  taxpayers  of  Boston  owned  but 
4  per  cent,  of  the  city's  wealth.  In  1845  the  333  richest  men  of 
Boston  owned  a  greater  portion  of  its  wealth  than  do  1200  of  its 
richest  citizens  to-day.  The  wealth  of  the  world  has  enormously 
increased ;  the  rich  are  growing  richer  and  the  poor  are  growing 
better  off. 

The  globe  could  not  support  its  population  if  deprived  of  the 
benefits  of  the  steam  engine  and  the  labor-saving  machinery  attendant 
in  its  train.  Rae,  the  eminent  Arctic  explorer,  states  that  every 
Indian  within  the  territory  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  requires  20 
square  miles  of  land  from  which  to  make  a  living  by  hunting  and 
fishing.  The  Royal  Geological  Society  a  decade  ago  estimated  the 
world's  population  at  1,487,600,000,  and  if  this  is  even  approx- 
imately correct  there  are  now  living  in  the  world  620  times  as  many 
people  as  could  be  supported  on  a  civilization  no  lower  than  that  of 
the  North  American  Indian,  and  Manhattan  Island,  which  now  sup- 
ports a  population  of  1,850,093,  would,  if  deprived  of  the  benefits  of 
modern  civilization,  only  afford  a  living  for  two. 


APPENDIX. 

MAN'S    WORK    AND    TRAINING. 

r  I  ^HE  choice  of  an  occupation  is  of  greater  moment  than  formerly. 
*  Time  was  when  the  son  followed  pretty  closely  in  the  foot- 
steps of  his  father  and  all  the  male  members  of  a  family  were  mem- 
bers of  one  profession.  It  was  easier  to  choose  an  occupation  then, 
foi  the  choice  was  limited.  To-day,  professions  are  extending  their 
invitations  that  were  unheard  of  a  generation  ago.  It  seems  unfortu- 
nate that  one  of  the  most  important  decisions  in  life  must  be  made 
by  a  young  man  when  he  is  the  least  fitted  to  make  that  decision, 
and  when  it  is  only  too  likely  to  be  influenced  by  mere  desire  or 
ephemeral  fancy  rather  than  aptitude,  fitness,  and  qualification,  both 
mental  and  physical,  which  should  be  the  determining  factors  in  the 
selection  of  a  profession.  The  occupation  cannot  dignify  the  man 
so  much  as  the  man  may  dignify  the  occupation.  It  is  a  season  of 
unrest  and  change,  and  new  lines  of  employment  are  constantly 
being  opened,  offering  fascinating  inducements  to  young  men,  and 
affecting  materially  the  earnings  of  those  in  the  older  professions. 
One  hundred  years  ago  it  was  an  unusual  thing,  and  almost  some- 
thing to  be  deplored,  for  a  Harvard  graduate  to  enter  business  instead 
of  taking  up  one  of  the  learned  professions,  but  all  this  has  changed. 
Two  hundred  years  ago  the  large  landowner  was  making  the  most 
money;  one  hundred  years  ago  it  was  the  shipowner;  to-day  it  is 
the  manufacturer,  and  the  young  man  in  selecting  an  occupation 
should  take  into  consideration  the  tendency  of  the  times,  his  fitness, 
and  decide  accordingly. 

The  great  use   of  machinery  has  sprung  up  wholly  within  a  cen- 
tury and  a   quarter.      It  seems  plainly  evident  that  the  present  cen- 


702  THE    MARVELS   OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

tury  is  to  witness  the  greatest  development  of  industrial  forces  that 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  Statistics  show  a  constant  and  steady  gain 
of  the  skilled  over  unskilled  workers,  and  one  is  not  heeding  the 
signs  of  the  times  who  neglects  the  warning  and  relies  on  strength 
alone,  for  the  proportion  of  labor  that  calls  only  for  muscular  exer- 
tion is  becoming  smaller  and  smaller. 

This  fact  is  becoming  generally  recognized,  and  the  increasing 
number  of  manual  training  schools,  trade  schools,  technical  schools, 
technical  departments  attached  to  great  universities,  and  institutes  of 
technology  show  the  general  trend  of  interest.  There  are  a  few 
trade  and  technical  schools  on  the  American  continent  that  com- 
pare favorably  with  those  of  France,  Belgium,  Switzerland,  Ger- 
many, Austria,  Scandinavia,  but  in  general  the  European  schools 
are  superior. 

Manual  training  schools  are  such  as,  in  addition  to  regular  edu- 
cational courses,  give  instruction  in  tool  work.  In  trade  schools  the 
great  consideration  is  the  mastery  of  a  trade  with  some  attention  to 
general  education.  The  technical  school  bears  the  same  relation  to 
the  trade  school  that  the  high  school  does  to  the  grammar  school, 
for  it  teaches  not  only  the  handicraft  but  the  principles  upon  which 
it  is  founded.  Institutes  of  technology  give  a  technical  education 
ranking  with  the  universities  and  confer  degrees  on  their  graduates 
as  civil  engineer,  electrical  engineer,  mining  engineer. 

The  industrial  schools  of  Europe  are  fitting  young  men  for  many 
trades  with  a  thoroughness  which  seems  particularly  characteristic  of 
the  German,  and  easy  means  of  communication,  quick  and  cheap 
transportation,  are  breaking  down  national  barriers  and  making  it 
constantly  easier  to  move  to  the  places  where  there  is  the  greatest 
demand.  Australia,  Canada,  and  the  United  States  are  looked  upon 
in  continental  Europe  as  especially  promising  fields  and  the  Mecca 
for  the  young  man  after  he  has  finished  his  industrial  education  at 


APPENDIX.         .  703 

home.  The  moral  is  obvious  —  the  American  must  be  equally  well 
prepared. 

Medicine.  It  seems  reasonable  to  believe  that  as  the  people 
become  better  educated  and  better  acquainted  with  the  laws  of  life, 
as  sanitary  engineering  improves  and  as  medical  science  continues  to 
add  to  its  long  and  honorable  series  of  victories,  that  there  will  be 
less  and  less  demand  for  physicians.  The  specialist  will  do  better 
than  the  general  practitioner  and  in  selecting  the  specialty  it  will  be 
well  to  remember  the  strain  of  modern  life  upon  the  eye,  the  ear,  and 
the  nervous  system.  One  of  the  most  eminent  physicians  of  New 
York  city  says  the  regular  physician  who  in  five  years  establishes  a 
practice  that  supports  him  does  well. 

Law.  If  the  young  lawyer  is  to  become  eminent,  certain  spe- 
cialties in  law,  as  criminal  law  or  some  branch  of  corporation  law, 
seem  to  offer  the  most  brilliant  prospects. 

Music,  painting,  and  sculpture  seem  to  offer  better  prospects  than 
ever  before  on  this  continent,  for,  with  increasing  education,  wealth, 
and  leisure  among  the  people,  the  artist  will  receive  larger  patronage. 

The  instruction  in  the  schools  of  art  and  design  range  from 
designs  for  wall  paper  and  carpets  to  building  cathedrals.  The  fol- 
lowing are  a  few  well  known  art  schools:  The  Art  Students' 
League,  215  W.  57th  street,  New  York  city;  tuition  $4  to  $12  a 
month;  a  few  scholarships  and  prizes  are  awarded.  The  New  York 
School  of  Art,  57  W.  57th  street,  New  York  city;  tuition  $5  to  $15 
a  month;  several  scholarships  and  prizes  are  awarded.  Cooper 
Union,  Astor  place,  New  York  city,  has  free  night  schools  for  men 
where  instruction  in  mechanical  drawing,  architectural  drawing, 
decorating,  designing,  modeling,  etc.,  are  given.  The  Pennsylvania 
Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  Philadelphia,  has  two  terms  of  17  weeks 
each  ;  tuition  $10  to  $30  per  term  ;  several  valuable  prizes  and  scholar- 
ships are  awarded.  The  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston  ;  tuition  $i  15 


704          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

for  a  year  of  33  weeks;  pupils  are  limited  to  200.  The  Art  Institu- 
tion of  Chicago  has  perhaps  the  largest  enrollment  of  pupils;  tuition 
$50  to  $75  a  year.  Among  others,  equally  meritorious,  are  the  Art 
Academy  of  Cincinnati,  the  St.  Louis  School  of  Fine  Arts,  of  St. 
Louis;  the  Minneapolis  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  Minneapolis; 
Columbia  University  School  of  Architecture,  New  York  city. 
Nearly  all  of  the  larger  colleges  give  some  instruction  in  fine  arts. 

The  Polytechnic  institutes  are  all  of  comparatively  recent 
growth.  The  first  one  in  the  United  States  was  the  Rensselaer 
Polytechnic  Institute  of  Troy,  N.  Y.,  founded  by  Stephen  Van 
Rensselaer  in  1824. 

Gradually  the  old  system  of  education,  once  ample,  was  shown 
to  be  inadequate  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  changed  in- 
dustrial conditions  and  interests,  and  separate  scientific  departments 
and  distinct  organizations  for  technical  schools  were  made.  Of 
these  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School  of  Yale  was  founded  in  1847; 
the  Lawrence  Scientific  School  of  Harvard,  1848;  the  Chandler 
Scientific  School  of  Dartmouth,  1852;  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology,  1865;  Cornell,  1868;  the  Stevens  Institute,  Hoboken, 
N.  J.,  1871;  the  Rose  Polytechnic  School,  Terre  Haute,  Ind.,  1883; 
the  Case  School  of  Applied  Science,  Cleveland,  O.,  1891  ;  Depart- 
ment of  Applied  Science,  McGill  University,  Montreal,  1878. 

The  trade  school  is  a  product  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Before 
the  advent  of  the  steam  engine,  the  master  workman  took  appren- 
tices into  his  own  shop  and  taught  them  the  craft,  and  he  was  simply, 
as  the  name  implied,  the  master  workman.  But  with  the  introduc- 
tion of  machinery  he  became  active  manager  of  an  industrial  estab- 
lishment, and  the  old  relations  were  no  longer  possible,  hence  the 
trade  schools  arose  to  supply  the  deficiency.  Of  these,  the  Pennsyl- 
vania School  of  Industrial  Art  and  the  School  of  Weaving  at  Crefeld, 
Germany,  are  representatives  of  this  type,  which  offer  special  courses 


APPENDIX.  705 

in  silk  weaving,  linen  weaving,  watch-making,  mason  work,  machine 
work,  brewing,  etc.  The  courses  last  from  three  to  five  years  and 
beside  the  trade  training  given,  additional  instruction  is  given 
in  mechanical  drawing,  free-hand  drawing,  mathematics,  bookkeep- 
ing, science,  etc.  The  object  of  these  schools  is  to  supply  a  limited 
number  of  graduates  fitted  to  become  superior  workmen  and  foremen 
rather  than  to  train  the  great  body  of  artisans.  The  first  practical 
trade  school  of  the  western  hemisphere  was  founded  in  New  York  so 
lately  as  1881  and  the  work  was  at  first  confined  wholly  to  evening 
classes.  Numerous  schools  of  like  character  have  sprung  up,  among 
which  is  the  Pratt  Institute  of  Brooklyn,  and  none  rank  higher. 

A  strong  evidence  of  the  value  of  technical  training  is  seen  in  the 
sacrifices  men  of  experience  as  machinists  and  draughtsmen  are  will- 
ing to  make  in  order  to  secure  it.  Although  there  has  been  a  rapid 
increase  in  this  branch  of  instruction  during  the  past  fifteen  years, 
it  has  hardly  kept  pace  with  the  increasing  demand. 

Many  of  the  young  men  who  would  make  best  use  of  the  advan- 
tages offered  by  the  technical  schools  are  not  wealthy  and  some  of 
them  are  limited  in  general  education.  All  such  may  be  interested 
in  reliable  information  regarding  the  entrance  requirements  of  the 
technical  schools,  and  the  cost  of  a  thorough  technical  education. 

Professor  Thurston  of  the  scientific  department  of  Cornell  Uni- 
versity, which  may  be  considered  as  standard,  writes  as  follows:  — 

"To  enter  upon  a  course  of  study  in  a  college  school  of  engi- 
neering, a  good  preparation  in  mathematics  is  demanded,  including 
as  the  first  requirement,  the  highest  of  the  high  school  branches.  To 
enter  upon  the  full  course  as  a  candidate  for  a  degree  also  involves 
good  preparation  in  other  branches  of  high  school  study  and  espe- 
cially in  the  modern  languages;  for  the  literature  of  engineering  is 
very  largely  to  be  found  in  the  French  and  German  languages.  All 
this  means  for  the  average  man,  the  consecration  of  much  valuable 


706  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

time,  much  hard  work  and  considerable  money  to  the  task  of  simply 
preparing  for  college;  but  many  young  men  do  it,  earning  their  liv- 
ing and  paying  their  way  to  the  highest  and  best  of  technical  schools 
and  through  them. 

"  Cornell  University  offers  six  hundred  *  state  scholarships,' 
involving  no  payment  of  tuition  fees,  to  those  who  succeed  in  a  pub- 
lic competition  held  in  all  the  election  districts  of  the  state  of  New 
York  at  stated  periods. 

"  Although  the  student  in  a  course  of  college  work  in  mechanical 
engineering  of  whatever  kind  spends  hundreds  of  dollars  each  year  for 
a  number  of  years  to  secure  his  diploma  in  engineering,  much  may  be 
accomplished  by  a  man  of  pluck  and  ambition,  with  a  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice,  on  a  comparatively  small  sum.  In  the  larger  cities,  for- 
tunately for  this  class  of  men,  are  now  to  be  found  institutions  which 
facilitate  his  work  in  self-instruction  and  self-education  enormously, 
and  the  Cooper  Institute  in  New  York,  the  pioneer  in  this  grand 
work,  is  a  good  example.  Others  are  the  Pratt  Institute,  Brooklyn; 
the  Auchinschloss  schools,  New  York ;  the  Drexel  Institute,  Phila- 
delphia; the  Lewis  and  the  Armour  Institutes,  Chicago,  and  others, 
including  the  best  correspondence  schools,  in  which  excellent  courses 
of  instruction  are  given. 

"  In  some  individual  and  exceptional  cases  it  is  possible  to  find  a 
way  of  earning  something  while  in  college.  One  man  boasted  that 
he  left  college  considerably  richer  than  when  he  entered,  and  another 
by  securing  and  sub-letting  a  contract  in  a  remote  town,  for  an  elec- 
tric lighting  plant,  made  a  surplus  of  some  thousands  of  dollars;  but 
these  are  not  cases  to  be  taken  as  giving  much  encouragement  to  the 
average  student.  He  must  usually  make  a  business  of  study  and 
study  only." 

F.  W.  Tyler,  Secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology, states  as  follows :  — 


APPENDIX.  /O/ 

"Any  applicant  needs  to  be  well  prepared  in  algebra  and  plane 
and  solid  geometry  as  a  minimum,  whether  for  a  regular  or  a  special 
course  in  engineering.  Our  scholarship  funds  are  in  general  re- 
stricted to  regular  students  who  have  completed  a  year  or  more  of 
good  work  and  are  known  to  be  in  need. 

"  Many  of  our  scholarship  applicants  get  on  for  $5  per  week  or 
less  for  room  and  board,  although  such  economy  involves  some  de- 
gree of  hardship." 

G.  H.  Marx  of  Leland  Stanford  Jr.  University,  says:  — 

"  A  person  who  has  had  a  good,  common  school  education,  in- 
•  cluding  plane  geometry  and  elementary  algebra,  but  who  cannot  ful- 
fill the  requirements  for  entrance  as  a  regular  student,  can  enter  the 
university  as  a  special  student,  provided  he  is  at  least  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  and  has  had  practical  experience  of  a  nature  satisfac- 
tory to  the  authorities. 

"There  are  no  scholarships  which  give  a  student  financial  assist- 
ance, but  a  great  many  students  support  themselves  throughout 
their  course.  A  man  with  a  trade  can  earn  enough  in  the  shops 
of  San  Francisco  during  the  summer  to  carry  him  well  through  the 
year.  A  number  of  our  men  have  done  this.  The  expenses  of 
a  student  exclusive  of  clothing  and  railroad  fares  need  not  exceed 
$225  per  year." 

From  the  University  of  Illinois,  L.  P.  Breckenridge  writes:  — 

*'  The  charges  for  tuition  here  are  nominal  and  the  cost  of  living, 
including  all  expenses  of  the  student  both  in  the  university  and  out, 
may  be  easily  as  low  as  $225  to  $250  a  year. 

"  I  have  under  consideration  the  advisability  of  establishing  what 
we  might  call  a  two  years  course  in  Mechanic  Arts  at  the  University 
of  Illinois,  permitting  the  students  to  enter  it  with  only  the  avowed 
purpose  of  becoming  mechanics  rather  than  engineers.  There  seems 
to  be  very  little  provision  in  American  educational  systems  for 


708  THE    MARVELS   OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

educating  mechanics.  I  was  very  much  impressed  by  our  lack  of 
this  facility  from  what  I  saw  in  some  of  the  German  and  English 
schools." 

From  H.  W.  Spangler  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania:  — 

''The  actual  requirements  for  admission  cover  mathematics,  in- 
cluding algebra,  geometry  and  elements  of  trigonometry,  elementary 
physics,  English,  French,  German,  and  history.  The  university  has 
a  few  scholarships  available  for  students  residing  outside  of  Philadel- 
phia who  are  doing  the  full  work  of  the  course. 

"  The  cost  of  a  year's  work  at  the  university  would  be  made  up 
of  $200  tuition ;  $25  caution  money  to  cover  breakage,  with  any 
balance  returned;  room  in  the  dormitory  from  $45  to  $105  for  the 
college  year;  board  at  the  university  restaurant  at  $3.50  per  week ; 
and  books  and  supplies,  which  will  average  $25  per  year,  the  first 
year's  expenses  being  a  little  greater  than  the  average  because  of  the 
necessity  of  purchasing  drawing  tools." 

Palmer  C.  Ricketts,  president  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute, 
writes  as  follows  :  — 

"  We  require  for  entrance  at  the  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute 
the  usual  elementary  English  branches,  arithmetic,  plane  and  solid 
geometry,  and  algebra  through  quadratic. equations.  The  expenses 
vary  from  five  hundred  dollars  a  year  upward.  This  includes  tui- 
tion. We  have  no  scholarships  here  but  are  able  to  give  some 
students  quarters  free  of  rent.  Efficiency  in  shop  work  or  drawing 
would  not  help  offset  any  deficiency  in  entrance  requirements." 

McGill  University,  Montreal,  requires  English,  mathematics,  and 
French  or  German,  or  Greek  or  Latin,  and  also  an  examination  in 
physiography,  botany,  chemistry,  or  physics. 

Instruction  is  given  in  architecture,  civil  engineering,  survey- 
ing, electric  engineering,  mechanical  engineering,  mining  engineer- 
ing, metallurgy,  and  chemistry. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


APPENDIX.  709 

There  are  several  prizes  ranging  from  $10  to  $100  each  and  four 
scholarships,  one  worth  150  pounds  sterling. 

The  tuition  fee  is  about  $156  and  board  and  lodging  costs  from 
$15  to  $25  per  month. 

A  revolution  has  taken  place  in  college  education.  Great  uni- 
versities like  Yale,  Harvard,  Columbia,  and  Pennsylvania  accept 
studies  in  the  professional  schools  as  meeting  the  requirements  of  the 
last  year  in  college.  Yale  and  Harvard  no  longer  require  a  knowl- 
edge of  Greek  as  essential  to  admission.  A  young  man  can  be 
admitted  to  full  standing  in  the  academic  department  of  the  college 
who  has  no  knowledge  of  Greek  and  but  little  of  Latin,  and  once 
admitted  he  is  left  free  to  select  from  a  long  list  of  studies,  ranging 
from  architecture  and  music  on  the  one  hand  to  military  and  manual 
training  on  the  other,  and  he  can  obtain  his  degree  from  studies  that 
are  purely  practical  and  technical.- 


THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN   MECHANISM. 


MODERN   OCCUPATIONS   FOR   WOMEN. 

F^IFTY  years  ago  there  was  one  woman  wage 
earner  to  every  ten  men.  The  present  ratio 
is  one  to  four.  There  are  now  about  three  million 
women  and  girls  in  the  United  States  alone  who 
earn  their  own  livelihood.  This  is  one  of  the 
striking  changes  incident  to  the  great  increase  of 
business  which  has  marked  the  age  of  invention. 
Not  only  has  invention  enabled  deft  fingers  and 
quick  minds  to  displace  mere  muscle  but  it  has  also 
opened  many  new  avenues  of  employment  to  men 
and  the  work  dropped  by  them  as  they  have 
reached  out  for  something  better  has  been  picked 
up  by  women. 

The  primeval  man  and  woman  gained  a  bare 
subsistence  by  hunting,  fishing,  and  tilling  the 
ground  in  a  simple  fashion,  while  they  had  at  the 
same  time  to  contend  with  wild  beasts  and  hostile 
tribes  of  hardly  less  savage  men.  As  the  woman 
sought  places  of  comparative  safety  for  her  chil- 
dren, the  easier  half  of  the  work,  as  tilling  the  soil 
and  preparing  the  simple  meals,  naturally  fell  to 
her.  The  humblest  working  woman  of  to-day  per- 
forms feats  of  skill  far  beyond  the  capacity  of 
primeval  man,  but  it  still  remains,  as  it  should, 
that  the  most  complex  and  arduous  tasks  fall  to 
men. 

So  long  as  she  could,  woman  continued  to  do 
her  half  of  the  world's  work  in  the  home,  but  the 
development  of  machinery  took  the  work  out  of  the 
home  into  the  factory  and  the  workers  had  to 


APPENDIX.  711 

follow  the  work.  Thus  "woman's  work"  has  gradually  widened, 
until  to-day  women  are  in  business  and  the  professions  as  well  as  the 
industries;  they  are  there  with  widening  knowledge  and  increasing 
ability;  it  is  probable  they  are  there  to  stay.  The  purpose  of  thia 
article  is  to  aid,  if  may  be,  those  who  wish  to  become  self-support- 
ing, or  to  earn  more  than  their  present  equipment  affords,  by  a  par- 
tial survey  of  the  occupations  now  practicable  for  women.  The  aim 
will  be  to  give  briefly  an  approximate  idea  of  the  necessary  aptitude 
and  preparation,  the  expense  of  preparation,  and  the  probable  remu- 
neration. 

Medicine,  of  the  learned  professions,  seems  to  be  the  one  for 
which  women  are  best  fitted  and  the  "woman  doctor"  may  be 
found  in  all  large  towns.  There  is  now  no  lack  of  medical  schools 
where  women  can  study  in  peace,  and  the  catalogue  of  any  of  them 
will  give  the  requirements.  The  course  is  from  two  to  four  years, 
according  to  the  statute  requirements  of  different  localities,  and  an 
annual  expenditure  of  $400  should  be  allowed  for  the  tuition,  board, 
and  incidental  expenses  of  each  college  year. 

The  financial  success  of  the  woman  physician  depends  upon  her 
personality  and  tact  as  well  as  upon  her  knowledge  of  her  profes- 
sion. A  comfortable  living  is  assured  her  when  competent,  if  she 
can  wait  a  few  months  to  build  up  a  practice.  There  are  compara- 
tively few  women  physicians  who  attain  a  yearly  income  of  over 
$2500,  and  doubtless  the  average  income  would  fall  somewhat  below 
the  $1000  mark.  It  should  be  remembered  that  this  is  a  most 
laborious  and  trying  profession  to  those  who  have  no  natural  love 
for  it. 

The  Woman's  Medical  College,  Philadelphia,  the  Cleveland 
Homeopathic  Medical  College,  Cleveland,  Ohio,  the  Toronto  School 
of  Medicine,  Toronto,  Ontario,  are  some  of  the  medical  colleges 
open  to  women. 


712  THE    MARVELS    OF   MODERN    MECHANISM. 

The  Law.  The  expense  of  a  course  in  law  is  about  the  same  as 
that  of  medicine. 

The  feminine  mind  seems  to  have  little  aptitude  for  this  profes- 
sion, which  keeps  one  so  continually  in  touch  with  the  seamy  side  of 
life,  and  there  are  few  women  lawyers  in  offices  of  their  own. 
There  is  an  opening  for  them,  however,  as  assistants  in  the  offices  of 
large  law  firms,  where  they  receive  salaries  from  $18  per  week  up- 
ward, according  to  experience  and  ability.  A  course  in  stenography 
and  typewriting  should  be  included  in  the  preparation  for  such  a 
position, 

Cornell  University,  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  Boston  University,  Boston, 
Mass.,  Osgoode  Hall,  Toronto,  and  other  law  schools,  now  give 
young  women  equal  opportunities  with  men  in  preparing  for  this 
profession. 

The  Ministry.  There  is  occasionally  a  woman  who  seems  as 
truly  called  to  preach  as  was  ever  John  the  Baptist,  and  such  usually 
make  their  way  and  find  their  place.  The  woman  who  wishes  to 
prepare  regularly  for  the  ministry  will  now  find  an  opening  in  most 
theological  schools  of  the  various  denominations  outside  the  Episco- 
pal and  Roman  Catholic.  These  and  other  churches  offer  "voca- 
tions" to  women  in  which  they  can  make  themselves  useful  as  sisters 
of  charity,  deaconesses,  nurses,  and  in  missionary  work.  The  fol- 
lowing institutions  have  departments  for  the  training  of  women  for 
different  branches  of  Christian  work:  — 

The  Bible  Normal  College,  Springfield,  Massachusetts. 

The  Lay  College,  Revere,   Massachusetts. 

The  Moody  Bible  Training  School,  Chicago,  Illinois. 

Dentistry  is  being  rapidly  taken  up  by  women  as  a  profession  and 
they  seem  to  be  generally  successful.  Before  a  woman  decides  to 
undertake  this  work  she  should  be  quite  sure  that  she  has  sound 
nerves,  physical  endurance,  a  natural  aptitude  for  fine  mechanical 


APPENDIX.  713 

work,  and  that  she  is  not  in  the  least  "  squeamish."  It  is  not  agree- 
able work  at  best,  but  it  is  useful  and  fairly  remunerative.  As  as- 
sistant dentist  a  woman  may  earn  from  $15  to  $25  a  week.  In 
business  for  herself  her  physical  strength  would  hardly  permit  her  to 
earn  more  than  $1500  to  $2000  a  year  unless  she  attracts  so  large  a 
patronage  as  to  employ  assistants  and  make  a  profit  from  their  work. 
It  is  said  that  if  the  teeth  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  alone 
were  properly  cared  for,  it  would  keep  50,000  dentists  constantly 
occupied. 

The  course  in  a  dental  college  is  three  years,  and  the  expense 
about  the  same  as  that  for  a  course  in  medicine. 

The  Pennsylvania  College  of  Dental  Surgery,  Philadelphia, 
Penn.,  the  Tufts  College  Dental  School,  Boston,  Mass.,  the  Toronto 
Dental  College,  Toronto,  Ontario,  and  many  of  the  dental  schools 
connected  with  universities  admit  women. 

Nursing  is  a  woman's  occupation  by  natural  right,  and  the  work 
of  the  trained  nurse  has  come  to  be  esteemed  as  hardly  less  impor- 
tant than  that  of  the  physician. 

Training  schools  for  nurses  are  to  be  found  in  connection  with 
most  public  hospitals.  The  usual  course  is  three  years.  The  com- 
mon requirements  are  that  the  probationer  be  over  21  and  under  35 
years  of  age,  that  she  have  sound  health,  good  character,  a  common 
school  education,  and  evince  some  fitness  for  the  calling.  While  in 
training  pupils  have  a  small  monthly  compensation  for  their  services 
as  well  as  board,  lodging,  and  washing,  with  care  if  ill. 

Graduate  nurses  command  from  $15  to  $25  a  week  for  their 
services,  but  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  work  is  too  arduous 
to  admit  of  constant  employment  and  that  the  nurse  may  earn  no 
more  in  the  course  of  a  year  than  a  woman  with  smaller  weekly 
wages  who  seldom  loses  a  day's  pay. 

Infant's  Nurse.     The  position  of  a  trained  nurse  for  infants  ranks 


714         THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

with  that  of  the  trained  nurse  for  the  sick,  while  the  work  is  more 
agreeable,  less  wearing,  and  the  employment  less  fluctuating.  That 
infant  is  to  be  counted  happy  who  is  consigned  to  the  care  of  a  re- 
fined, kind,  scientifically  trained  young  woman,  who  will  undertake 
to  carry  the  mite  of  humanity  through  its  first  year  and  see  it  safely 
started  on  the  difficult  journey  of  life.  Training  may  be  had  at  the 
Babies'  Hospital,  Lexington  avenue,  New  York.  The  course  is  six 
months,  and  the  graduate,  if  competent  and  a  desirable  person,  can 
readily  find  occupation  in  a  home  of  wealth  at  a  salary  of  $30  to 
$50  a  month.  Her  duties  are  to  take  charge  of  the  child  day  and 
night,  but  she  often  has  the  assistance  of  a  nurse  girl  and  is  not 
called  upon  to  do  any  housework  or  sewing. 

Teaching  as  an  occupation  for  woman  is  so  well  known  that  little 
need  be  said  of  its  pleasures,  pains,  or  emoluments.  Especial  train- 
ing for  the  work  is  now  almost  universally  required,  and  there  are 
numerous  normal  schools  which  furnish  free  instruction  with  board 
and  other  necessary  expenses  at  reasonable  rates.  The  course  varies 
from  two  to  four  years. 

The  average  wage  of  the  public  school  teacher  is  $40  per  month 
for  a  school  year  of  nine  months  or  less.  Three  hundred  and  sixty 
dollars  a  year  is  not  a  munificent  sum  with  which  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  a  woman  of  intelligence  and  culture,  but  teachers  of  the 
higher  branches,  and  in  city  schools,  are  well  paid.  In  this  line  of 
work,  as  in  any,  it  pays  to  be  a  specialist,  teaching  only  one  or  two 
branches,  as  music  or  drawing.  A  special  teacher  usually  serves  sev- 
eral schools  yet  carries  less  responsibility  and  encounters  fewer  an- 
noyances than  a  teacher  who  has  entire  charge  of  one  school. 

Kindergarten  teaching  requires  special  training  and  commands  a 
somewhat  larger  salary  than  regular  grade  teaching.  This  is  pleasant 
work  for  enthusiastic  lovers  of  children  and  no  others  have  any 
moral  right  to  attempt  it.  Private  kindergarten  schools  are  numer- 


APPENDIX.  715 

ous  and  a  winsome,  refined  teacher  can  gather  a  class  in  almost  any 
community.  Nearly  all  normal  schools  and  teachers'  training 
schools  have  a  kindergarten  department. 

Physical  Culture.  There  is  a  growing  demand  for  teachers  of 
gymnastics  and  physical  culture.  The  requirements  are  a  fine 
natural  figure,  a  thorough  knowledge  of  anatomy  and  physiology, 
and  the  ability  to  make  practical  application  of  the  knowledge. 
Aside  from  positions  in  public  and  private  schools  open  to  such 
teachers,  independent  work  can  be  secured  in  almost  any  town  by 
an  attractive  teacher  who  has  the  knack  of  getting  people  enthusias- 
tic over  her  fad  and  who  makes  her  classes  enjoy  themselves  under 
her  instruction.  One  hundred  dollars  a  month  is  not  an  unusual 
salary  for  a  good  teacher  in  physical  training,  and  the  opportunities 
are  on  the  increase. 

The  Emerson  College  of  Oratory,  Boston,  Mass.,  is  a  school  of 
high  standing  which  has  a  normal  course  for  training  instructors  of 
physical  culture.  The  full  course  is  three  years,  the  tuition  $135  a 
year,  while  from  $150  to  $200  must  be  allowed  for  board  and  inciden- 
tals. Many  of  the  regular  state  normal  schools  include  physical  training 
in  their  course,  tuition  free. 

Cookery.  Cooking  clubs  have  become  so  much  of  a  fad  that 
skilled  teachers  find  it  easy  to  secure  private  classes,  and,  as  cooking 
is  becoming  more  and  more  common  as  a  branch  of  study  in  the 
public  schools  and  in  educational  institutions  for  women,  there  is  a 
growing  field  for  teachers.  A  year's  course  in  the  normal  depart- 
ment of  the  New  York  Cooking  School  costs  #50  for  tuition,  but  a 
diploma  from  such  an  institution  is  a  great  aid  to  the  would-be 
teacher  in  securing  a  position. 

Music.  The  requisite  for  success  in  the  world  of  music  is  the 
natural  gift,  without  which  no  amount  of  training  will  avail,  and 
there  must  be  added  to  this  years  of  study  and  patient  practice,  be- 


716          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

ginning  in  childhood  or  youth.  Every  village  has  its  music  teacher, 
who  imparts  the  rudiments  of  piano  playing,  and  its  singing  master, 
who  teaches  how  to  "sing  by  note."  Beyond  this  there  is  hardly 
any  limit  to  the  instruction  one  may  receive  or  the  amount  it  may 
cost. 

Nearly  all  colleges  for  women  offer  the  best  of  facilities  for  the 
serious  study  of  music,  either  as  a  special  course  or  in  connection 
with  other  studies,  and  there  are  schools  which  are  entirely  devoted 
to  the  teaching  of  all  classes  of  music  and  to  the  training  of  teachers. 
One  of  the  best  known  of  these  is  the  New  England  Conservatory  of 
Music,  Boston,  which  offers  especial  advantages  to  lady  students. 

The  teaching  of  the  various  branches  of  music  gives  a  livelihood 
to  many  women,  both  as  instructors  in  public  and  private  schools 
and  as  independent  teachers.  The  salaries  of  teachers  in  the  schools 
range  from  $300  to  $1200  a  year,  while  private  teachers  can  com- 
mand all  the  way  from  50  cents  to  $5  a  lesson,  the  ordinary  price 
being  about  $i  a  lesson.  Trained  singers  with  good  voices  can 
readily  obtain  positions  in  church  quartets  at  salaries  of  from  $150 
to  $1200  a  year,  two  or  three  hundred  dollars  being  considered  a  fair 
price. 

Piano  Tuning.  A  woman  who  is  physically  strong  and  who  has 
a  correct  ear  can  readily  become  a  skillful  piano  tuner,  and  it  is  a 
field  of  work  not  overcrowded.  The  usual  charge  for  tuning  a 
square  or  upright  piano  is  $2,  a  parlor  grand  $2.50. 

The  New  England  Conservatory  of  Music,  Boston,  offers  a  two 
years'  course  in  piano  tuning  at  a  tuition  of  $100  a  year. 

Literature  is  a  field  in  which  a  few  women  find  fortunes,  a  large 
number  make  a  comfortable  living,  a  larger  number  eke  out  a  bare 
subsistence,  but  in  which  the  largest  number  of  aspirants  waste  time 
and  lose  money.  If  a  woman  feels  the  fires  of  genius  burning  within 
her  soul  she  will  write  in  spite  of  every  discouragement,  and  if  she 


APPENDIX.  717 

is  persistent  her  work  will  finally  secure  recognition.  Ease  of  ex- 
pression is  natural  to  the  gentler  sex  and  almost  any  woman  of  edu- 
cation and  culture  can  write  passably  well  regarding  any  subject  of 
which  she  has  positive  knowledge,  but  she  should  not  mistake  this 
facility  for  the  talent  which  would  be  her  only  warrant  in  turning  to 
literature  as  a  means  of  livelihood. 

Journalism  demands  less  than  the  higher  forms  of  literature  and 
offers  a  good  field  for  women  of  wide  intelligence,  who  have  a  bright, 
original  way  of  putting  things,  and  the  knack  of  rapid  composition. 
An  experienced  writer  can  command  from  $15  to  $35  a  week  in 
newspaper  work,  according  to  her  ability  and  her  success  in  secur- 
ing positions  of  importance.  'She  must  expect  to  work  her  way  and 
make  a  place  for  herself. 

Reporting,  the  first  step  in  the  career  of  a  newspaper  writer,  is 
often  disagreeable  work,  and  while  there  are  many  beginners  in  this 
school  of  experience,  there  are  comparatively  few  graduates.  Still 
the  difficulties  are  no  greater  than  those  in  the  way  of  success  in 
almost  any  calling  which  commands  equal  remuneration. 

Lecturers.  The  twenty  years  following  the  Civil  War  in 
America  was  a  harvest  time  for  lecturers.  Those  who  have  been 
fortunate  enough  to  hear  Lucy  Stone,  Anna  Dickinson,  Mary  A. 
Livermore,  and  Julia  Ward  Howe  can  but  regret  that  their  places 
seem  to  go  unfilled  and  that  the  popular  lecturer  is  no  longer  in  de- 
mand and  seldom  attracts  except  as  subordinate  to  a  stereopticon. 
However,  in  these  days  when  a  little  knowledge  of  many  subjects  is 
fashionable,  there  is  a  new  field  for  educated,  cultured  women  as 
drawing-room  lecturers.  Women  who  have  little  time  or  inclination 
for  serious  study  or  reading  are  glad  to  pay  a  clever  woman  who  has 
the  knack  of  making  herself  entertaining  to  talk  to  them  once  a 
week  on  art,  literature,  architecture,  or  some  other  heavy  subject, 
thus  taking  sugar-coated  pills  of  knowledge  in  homeopathic  doses. 


7l8          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

This  is  a  suitable  field  for  the  college  graduate  or  specialist  who  has 
good  references  and  a  little  social  backing.  Several  weekly  classes 
of  ten  or  more  each  may  be  formed  at  prices  ranging  from  50  cents 
to  $i  per  lecture,  and  thus  afford  the  lecturer  a  very  fair  recom- 
pense for  her  time  and  knowledge. 

The  Stage.  It  is  the  general  verdict  that  the  stage  is  a  poor 
place  for  a  woman  who  can  be  reasonably  contented  elsewhere,  and 
unless  a  girl  is  very  sure  that  she  is  a  Mary  Anderson  or  a  Maxine 
Elliott  in  genius,  beauty,  and  character,  she  would  better  look  else- 
where for  a  means  of  livelihood. 

The  Academy  of  Dramatic  Arts,  New  York,  and  other  dramatic 
schools  in  large  cities,  train  neophytes  to  act  the  simpler  parts  upon 
the  stage  in  from  six  months  to  two  years,  according  to  the  aptitude 
of  the  pupil.  The  cost  of  preparation  ranges  from  $600  to  $1500, 
including  board.  Of  course,  star  actresses  can  command  their  own 
prices  and  many  have  become  wealthy.  Actresses  in  subordinate 
parts  receive  from  $12  to  $35  a  week,  but  the  season  is  brief  at  best 
and  employment  uncertain,  while  expenses  are  necessarily  heavy. 

Librarians.  The  office  of  librarian  is  in  the  line  of  woman's 
tastes  and  strength  and  is  fairly  lucrative.  Most  of  the  smaller 
libraries  are  managed  by  women,  while  hundreds  are  employed  as 
attendants  in  the  large  libraries.  Until  within  a  few  years  the  duties 
of  librarian  could  be  learned  only  by  apprenticeship  in  a  library,  but 
now  there  are  several  recognized  schools  for  the  training  of  librarians 
and  assistants.  The  usual  course  is  two  years,  and  tuition  about 
$75  a  year.  A  graduate  from  such  a  school  can  usually  secure 
employment  at  from  $40  to  $50  a  month  at  the  start,  while  promo- 
tion comes,  as  elsewhere,  by  a  combination  of  ability  and  fortunate 
circumstances.  A  pleasing  manner  and  a  genuine  desire  to  be 
accommodating  are  indispensable  to  real  success  in  this  work,  as  well 
as  a  love  for  books,  general  intelligence,  a  good  memory,  and 
a  faculty  for  being  painstaking. 


APPENDIX.  719 

There  are  library  schools  in  connection  with  the  University  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  Pratt  Institute,  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y.,  Drexel  Institute,  Philadelphia,  and  the  University  of  Illinois, 
Champaign,  111. 

Saleswomen.  Despite  the  hard,  tiresome  work,  long  hours,  and 
small  wages,  the  supply  of  this  kind  of  labor  is  always  far  in  excess 
of  the  demand.  Beginners  receive  but  $2  or  $3  a  week,  while  $8  to 
$10  is  large  pay  for  any  excepting  those,  who,  after  years  of  ex- 
perience, are  promoted  to  the  position  of  head  of  department.  The 
greatest  prize  the  sales  girl  has  to  hope  for  is  the  position  of  buyer. 
An  expert  woman  buyer  for  a  large  store  sometimes  commands  a 
salary  of  $2000  a  year  or  more,  with  a  yearly  trip  to  Europe  (on 
business)  thrown  in.  Such  a  position  demands  great  shrewdness, 
foresight,  and  business  ability,  and  can  be  attained  by  only  the  few. 

Compositors.  A  few  years  ago  the  majority  of  compositors  were 
women.  Now  a  woman  has  little  chance  of  employment  in  any 
of  the  large  printing  establishments  unless  she  belongs  to  "the 
Union."  As  a  member  of  the  union 
she  receives  the  same  pay  as  a  man, 

•  vSt'  ff          nj"r*' jMiT^i 
but  she  is  not  at  liberty  to  accept  less 

even  if  it  should  be  to  her  advantage 

to  do  so,  and  on  the  basis  of  equal  pay 

men  are   preferred    because  they  are 

strong  enough  to    do    the    incidental 

lifting  and   other  heavy  work,  while  a 

woman  must  be  waited  upon  more  or 

less.      Many    of    the    smaller   offices,  PRESS  FEEDER. 

however,  employ  compositors  without  regard  to   union  requirements, 

and  with  such  it  is  a  question  of  skill  and  wages.    A  good  compositor 

can  earn  from  $8  to  $10  per  week  of  54  hours.      A   woman  who   can 

run  a  linotype  machine  with  speed  and  accuracy  and  accomplish  her 

set  task  day  in  and  day  out  may  receive  from  $15  to  $18  a  week. 


720          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

The  Proof  reader  must  have  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
English  language,  and  the  ability  acquired  by  practice  to  read  the 
printed  page  rapidly  and  see  all  typographical  and  other  errors. 
The  work  commands  remuneration  in  direct  proportion  to  the  skill  of 
the  reader.  A  good  text-book  on  the  subject  will  give  the  technical 
knowledge  necessary  but  only  experience  in  a  printing  office  will  bring 
the  practical  knowledge  that  will  command  a  good  salary.  There 
is  no  better  way  to  learn  the  art  than  to  get  the  opportunity  to  serve 
an  apprenticeship  in  a  printing  office  of  good  standing,  depending  for 
advancement  upon  the  ability  to  become  increasingly  useful.  The 
best  proof  readers  are  familiar  with  several  languages  besides  English, 
possess  a  great  fund  of  general  information,  and  have  a  practical 
knowledge  of  typesetting.  Skilled  proof  readers  receive  from  $18  to 
$35  a  week. 

A  course  in  proof  reading  is  offered  by  the  Heffley  School,  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y.,  covering  ten  weeks,  at  a  tuition  of  $25. 

Clerical  work,  including  bookkeeping,  stenography,  and  copying, 
furnishes  employment  to  a  larger  number  of  educated  women  than 
any  other  calling  except  teaching.  Schools  for  the  teaching  of  com- 
mercial branches  abound,  and  private  instruction  may  easily  be 
obtained.  Many  who  enroll  as  students  fail  to  complete  the  course 
and  secure  and  hold  positions,  and  yet  there  are  many  more  ap- 
plicants than  positions.  There  will  always  be  a  place,  however,  for 
those  who  can  do  a  common  thing  uncommonly  well. 

Tuition  in  the  average  business  college  is  $10  to  $12  a  month  for 
a  year  of  seven  to  nine  months,  books  and  stationery  extra.  In  many 
cities  the  Young  Woman's  Christian  Association  has  classes  in  these 
branches,  as  do  also  the  public  evening  schools,  and  instruction 
free  or  at  nominal  rates  is  furnished  at  the  great  industrial  schools 
already  mentioned. 

Unless  a  girl  is  naturally  quick  at  figures  and  has  a  taste  for  them 


APPENDIX.  721 

she  is  only  heaping  up  sorrows  for  herself  by  the  study  of  hook- 
keeping.  This  work  is  for  those  naturally  exact  and  orderly  and  for 
whom  long  columns  of  figures  have  little  terror.  Wages  range  from 
$6  to  $18  a  week,  according  to  the  requirements  of  the  position  and 
the  ability  of  the  incumbent. 

By  means  of  the  sister  industries  of  stenography  and  typewriting 
many  a  woman  supplies  herself  with  the  necessities  of  life  and  a  few 
of  its  luxuries.  To  become  a  superior  stenographer,  a  girl  should  be 
naturally  alert  of  mind  and  quick  of  motion  and  should  be  thoroughly 
grounded  in  spelling,  punctuation,  composition,  and  if  she  also  has 
some  knowledge  of  foreign  languages,  so  much  the  better.  The 
public  stenographer,  private  secretary,  and  even  the  office  assistant 
will  find  use  for  her  entire  stock  of  knowledge  and  general  informa- 
tion, and  at  best  abundant  occasion  to  lament  her  limitations.  The 
stenographer  who  combines  skill,  intelligence,  and  business  sense 
with  an  even  temper,  and  who  takes  a  genuine  interest  in  her  work, 
will  sooner  or  later  win  substantial  recognition.  The  wages  of  office 
stenographers  who  carry  little  business  responsibility  range  from  $6 
to  $10  a  week,  while  a  knowledge  of  the  business  gained  by  expe- 
rience, with  the  ability  to  carry  responsibility  and  direct  the  work  of 
others,  brings  from  $12  to  $20  a  week. 

Many  women  maintain  offices  of  their  own  and  the  most  success- 
ful of  them  earn  far  more  than  if  on  salary  in  a  business  office. 
Average  prices  are  five  cents  per  hundred  words  for  copying  manu- 
script;  $i  an  hour  for  taking  and  transcribing  dictation;  writing 
letters  from  dictation  from  10  cents  upward  per  letter,  according  to 
length.  Some  public  stenographers  make  a  specialty  of  going  to 
the  homes  of  women  patrons,  taking  dictation  of  personal  corre- 
spondence, and  writing  it  out  on  fine  stationery  in  a  modish  hand  ; 
$2  per  hour  is  ordinary  pay  for  such  work,  but  there  is  little  op- 
portunity for  it  outside  of  large  cities.  There  is  occasionally  a 


722  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

stenographer  who  works  for  two  or  three  small  concerns  having  but 
little  correspondence  each,  dividing  her  time  among  them  by  mutual 
agreement. 

Court  stenographers  receive  $10  a  day  while  on  duty,  but  the 
work  is  exceedingly  wearing,  difficult,  and  disagreeable,  and  but  few 
women  aspire  to  the  position. 

Government  Clerkships.  Hundreds  of  women  are  employed  as 
government  clerks  in  the  post  offices  and  in  the  various  departments 
at  Washington,  at  higher  salaries  than  are  paid  for  the  same  class  of 
work  by  private  concerns.  Appointments  are  based  on  civil  service 
examinations.  Detailed  information  as  to  requirements  for  the  vari- 
ous positions  can  be  obtained  from  the  member  of  Congress  of  the 
district  to  which  the  applicant  belongs. 

Telegraphy.  A  good  telegraph  operator  must  have  a  quick  and 
accurate  ear  and  a  good  English  education.  As  in  stenography,  a 
knowledge  of  the  principles  may  be  easily  acquired,  but  speed  and 
accuracy  come  only  with  long  practice.  There  are  schools  of  teleg- 
raphy that  assist  their  graduates  in  obtaining  positions,  but  the  art  is 
oftener  learned  by  private  lessons.  Cooper  Union,  New  York,  gives 
free  tuition.  A  girl  may  receive  in  her  first  position  a  salary  of 
$25  a  month,  which,  if  she  is  fortunate,  is  gradually  increased 
until  she  arrives  at  the  maximum  salary  of  $50  a  month.  The 
use  of  automatic  machinery  is  lessening  the  demand  for  common 
operators. 

Telephone  operator  is  the  employment  of  hundreds  of  girls  and 
young  women,  but  there  are  probably  ten  applicants  for  every  posi- 
tion. Consequently  the  salaries  are  kept  low,  the  average  being 
about  $6  a  week,  with  the  exception  of  the  supervisors,  who  re- 
ceive from  $10  to  $15  a  week.  The  novice  is  usually  put  on  the 
night  force  at  a  salary  of  perhaps  $3  a  week.  She  is  watched  and 
assisted  and  when  competent  is  transferred  to  the  day  force  with  an 


APPENDIX.  723 

increase  of  salary.  The  combinations  to  be  learned  are  almost  end- 
less and  they  must  be  made  without  loss  of  time.  The  work  requires 
quickness  rather  than  business  ability  or  education,  hence  is  not  very 
attractive  to  an  intelligent,  ambitious  girl. 

Most  telephone  stations  have  substitutes  in  training,  to  be  called 
in  case  of  illness  or  any  other  emergency,  and  the  vacancies  on  the 
regular  staff  are  filled  from  the  substitute  class. 

Architects.  A  few  women  have  made  a  signal  success  as  archi- 
tects and  it  appears  to  be  one  of  the  coming  professions  for  the 
occasional  woman  who  has  a  natural  bent  for  it,  a  well-trained  mind, 
and  who  can  give  the  years  of  study  necessary.  Poor  work  is  out  of 
place  in  this  calling  if  anywhere.  Architects  claim  that  a  college 
education,  supplemented  by  a  knowledge  of  mechanical  drawing,  is 
none  too  good  an  equipment  with  which  to  begin  the  study  of  archi- 
tecture. A  four  years'  course  in  a  technical  school,  or  two  years' 
study  in  an  architect's  office  and  two  or  three  years  in  a  good  tech- 
nical school,  is  necessary  before  a  student  can  command  a  fair  salary 
as  assistant,  and  then  a  year  or  two  of  hard  work  before  attempting 
to  go  into  the  business  for  herself.  Architects  usually  receive  5  per 
cent,  of  the  cost  of  a  building  for  designs  and  superintending  the 
construction.  Draughting  commands  from  $12  to  $30  a  week. 

The  New  York  School  of  Applied  Design  offers  a  course  in 
architecture  to  women,  as  does  also  the  'Drexel  Institute  in  Phila- 
delphia. One  hundred  dollars  a  year  will  cover  tuition  and  the  other 
expenses  are  the  usual  ones  of  living. 

Decorative  Arts.  Stand  for  a  moment  upon  the  corner  of  a  city 
street  or  go  through  a  department  store,  and  try  to  count  the  num- 
ber of  designs  that  meet  the  eye.  They  range  from  the  wrapper  on 
a  cake  of  soap  to  the  ornamental  facade  of  a  modern  business  palace. 
The  cry  is  always  for  something  novel,  and  many  new  designs  come 
year  by  year  from  the  fertile  brains  of  women. 


724  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

Designing  of  all  kinds,  illustrating,  pictorial  and  practical,  china 
painting,  wood  carving,  glass  working,  engraving,  and  kindred  arts, 
all  give  more  or  less  profitable  employment  to  women.  There  are 
art  schools  in  the  large  cities,  such  as  the  New  York  School  of 
Applied  Design,  already  mentioned,  and  Cooper,  Pratt,  and  Drexel 
Institutes,  where  instruction  is  given  in  these  various  branches  of  art, 
and  students  aided  in  obtaining  a  market  for  their  work.  It  may 
take  ten  years  of  study  and  practice,  even  when  the  artistic  gift  is 
combined  with  a  touch  of  inventive  genius,  to  place  the  student  of 
the  higher  forms  of  art  in  a  remunerative  position,  but  for  one  who 
loves  the  work  there  is  some  recompense  in  the  doing. 

Photography.  Some  of  the  most  skillful  photographers  in  the 
world  are  now  women,  and  women  are  employed  almost  exclusively 
to  do  the  mechanical  work  incident  to  photography.  The  wages  of 
women  employed  in  photograph  galleries  range  from  $5  to  $18,  or 
more  a  week.  It  seems  almost  ideal  employment  for  women  of 
intelligence  and  artistic  sense  but  unfortunately  there  is  room  for 
only  a  limited  number.  The  art  of  photography  may  be  learned  at 
Cooper  Institute,  New  York  (tuition  free),  and  at  some  other  art 
schools,  but  the  usual  method  is  to  seek  instruction  from  a  practical 
photographer.  In  these  days  of  amateur  photography,  developing 
and  printing  for  amateurs  furnishes  not  a  little  employment,  and  it  is 
work  that  might  be  done  by  a  woman  at  her  home  with  a  compara- 
tively inexpensive  equipment. 

Women  photographers  are  especially  successful  in  "  taking w 
children  and  some  make  it  their  entire  business  to  go  to  the  homes 
for  the  purpose  of  photographing  the  children  in  home  surroundings. 

Millinery.  The  principles  of  this  trade  can  be  learned  in  an 
industrial  school  but  nothing  short  of  months  of  practice  will  enable 
the  learner  to  do  salable  work,  and  apprenticeship  is  the  most  practi- 
cal method.  The  term  of  apprenticeship  required  is  usually  sixteen 


APPENDIX.  725 

weeks,  divided  between  two  seasons,  and  many  milliners  charge  for 
instruction.  Wages  vary  from  $5  to  $6  a  week  for  "makers" 
to  $15  'upward  a  week  for  "trimmers."  The  position  of  head 
trimmer  in  some  of  the  largest  establishments  is  a  very  lucrative  one, 
sometimes  commanding  as  much  as  $50  a  week,  with  a  yearly  trip  to 
Paris  for  styles  included,  but  such  possibilities  are  for  the  talented 
few.  One  serious  drawback  to  this  trade  is  that  the  ordinary  milliner 
can  hardly  escape  serious  overwork  in  the  "  season,"  and  that  she 
cannot  depend  upon  more  than  seven  months'  employment  in  the 
year.  The  millinery  business  has  proved  attractive  to  the  business 
woman  and  many  successful  millinery  shops  are  owned  and  managed 
by  women.  The  profits  on  all  lines  of  millinery  goods  are  large,  but 
it  should  be  remembered  that  in  a  comparatively  few  weeks  of  the 
year  enough  must  be  cleared  to  cover  the  expenses  of  the  entire  year, 
pay  interest  on  the  money  invested,  and  yield  the  equivalent  of  a 
good  salary. 

Dressmaking  is  fast  becoming  one  of  the  fine  arts,  and  the  modern 
dressmaker  in  order  to  excel  must  be  a  combination  of  artist,  designer, 
and  tailor,  while  her  prices  may  be  almost  anything  she  chooses  to 
make  them.  Her  assistants  receive  from  $4  to  $15  a  week, 
according  to  skill  and  the  kind  of  work  allotted  to  them. 

The  elements  of  dressmaking  can  be  learned  at  industrial  schools 
and  by  private  lessons,  but  months  of  practice  must  usually  precede 
living  wages. 

Demonstrating.  The  demand  for  effective  methods  of  advertis- 
ing has  opened  a  new  occupation  for  women.  Manufacturers  of  food 
products,  toilet  preparations,  household  devices,  and  some  other 
goods,  employ  women  to  travel  from  city  to  city  and  store  to  store  to 
demonstrate  the  practical  worth  of  their  goods  by  well  known  methods. 
A  competent  demonstrator  receives  from  $8  to  $15  a  week  with  pay- 
ment of  board  and  traveling  expenses.  A  life  of  continuous  travel 


726  THE    MARVELS    OF    MODERN    MECHANISM. 

is  not  ideal  for  a  home-loving  woman,  but  the  work  is  not  excep- 
tionally arduous  and  the  pay  good.  In  most  lines  of  demonstrating 
women  from  30  to  50  years  of  age  can  succeed  better  than  mere 
girls  for  obvious  reasons. 

Toilet  Expert.  Facial  massage,  manicuring,  hair  dressing,  and 
allied  industries  are  yearly  winning  more  patrons  and  give  employ- 
ment to  an  increasing  number  of  women  who  act  as  ladies'  maids  to 
the  public.  A  woman  with  a  thorough  knowledge  of  one  or  more  of 
these  industries,  who  is  pleasing  in  personal  appearance  and  agree- 
able in  manner,  need  have  little  difficulty  in  finding  work  at  living 
prices,  either  as  assistant  in  toilet  parlors  or  working  independently. 
The  only  way  to  become  thoroughly  proficient  is  by  apprenticeship, 
and  advertised  "  schools"  that  promise  to  teach  the  complete  art  in 
a  few  weeks  for  a  large  consideration  should  be  shunned.  The  novice 
must  usually  give  her  time  for  a  year  and  pay  for  her  instruction 
besides.  Of  course  any  single  branch  of  the  business,  as  manicuring 
or  hair  dressing,  can  be  mastered  in  less  time.  Prosperous  establish- 
ments of  this  kind  are  to  be  found  in  every  city,  also  women  who  do 
the  work  in  their  homes  or  go  by  appointment  to  the  homes  of  their 
patrons.  The  best  work  can  be  done  at  the  regular  places  of  busi- 
ness, where  are  found  electrical  and  other  useful  appliances  that  can- 
not be  carried  from  house  to  house.  Experts  in  the  large  cities 
command  high  prices,  but  the  following  is  an  average  schedule: 
Cleansing  the  hair  and  scalp,  including  a  simple  dressing  of  the  hair, 
50  cents  to  $i  ;  dressing  the  hair  elaborately,  35  cents  to  75  cents; 
chiropody,  50  cents  to  75  cents  per  treatment;  facial  massage,  75 
cents  to  $i  per  treatment. 

Additional  profits  may  be  made  by  the  manufacture  and  sale  of 
toilet  preparations. 

Soliciting.  There  are  few  occupations  that  bring  good  financial 
returns  without  a  considerable  expenditure  of  time  and  money  in 


APPENDIX.  727 

preparation,  but  success  in  soliciting  depends  more  upon  the  natural 
ability  of  the  solicitor  than  upon  experience,  and  an  investment  of 
capital  varying  from  one  to  ten  dollars  is  sufficient  to  start  an  intelli- 
gent, well-bred  woman  in  an  independent  and  often  lucrative  busi- 
ness. A  good  address,  self-possession,  and  pleasing  ways  are  all 
advantageous,  yet  there  is  many  a  born  saleswoman  lacking  these 
qualifications  who  makes  up  for  them  by  earnestness.  A  moderately 
successful  solicitor  can  earn  from  $15  to  $20  a  week,  working  seven 
or  eight  hours  a  day.  Usually  located  for  several  weeks  in  a  place, 
her  traveling  expenses  are  not  heavy.  Application  to  any  reputable 
house  selling  goods  through  agents  will  bring  prompt  and  full  infor- 
mation. Many  a  woman  suddenly  thrown  on  her  own  resources 
with  immediate  self 'support  a  necessity,  has  not  only  supported  her- 
self but  educated  her  children  by  this  means.  As  the  writer  of 
a  valuable  book  or  the  inventor  of  a  useful  article  is  considered 
worthy  of  honor,  so  those  who  distribute  such  goods  among  the 
people  command  respect.  Unfortunately,  more  or  less  worthless 
merchandise  has  been  foisted  upon  the  public  in  this  way,  but  it  has 
also  been  the  medium  of  sale  of  most  of  the  encyclopedias,  art 
books,  and  other  choice  publications. 

Life  Insurance.  For  every  woman  who  is  self-dependent,  or 
who  has  others  dependent  upon  her,  "to  insure  or  not  to  insure"  is 
as  live  a  question  as  for  a  man  in  similar  circumstances.  Endow- 
ment policies,  combining  the  features  of  insurance  and  saving,  are 
popular  with  women  who  wish  to  lay  by  something  for  a  rainy  day 
and  at  the  same  time  provide  for  a  loved  one  in  case  of  death,  and 
this  class  are  more  easily  approached  and  influenced  to  insure  by 
another  woman  than  by  a  man.  There  are  also  numbers  of  well-to- 
do  women  in  the  homes  who  might  be  induced  to  insure  in  favor  of 
their  children  or  of  some  charitable  work  in  which  they  are  inter- 
ested. Life  insurance  offers  a  good  field  for  an  intelligent,  energetic 


728          THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

woman ;  a  field  not  overcrowded  and  one  from  which  she  will  not 
be  pushed  when  her  locks  begin  to  turn  gray.  It  is  not  difficult  to 
secure  a  contract  with  a  reliable  company  on  a  generous  commission 
basis,  and  the  writing  of  one  or  two  policies  a  week,  as  they  aver- 
age, will  bring  the  agent  a  comfortable  living. 

Household  Industries — a  new  and  appropriate  title  for  the  old- 
fashioned  "  housework  "•— are  coming  more  and  more  to  be  recog- 
nized as  of  great  importance  and  worthy  careful  study.  It  is  now 
possible,  if  one  has  the  price  to  pay,  to  secure  as  housemaids  intel- 
ligent young  women  who  have  received  scientific  training  in  cookery 
and  the  care  of  a  house.  Such  courses  as  are  offered  at  the  Boston 
School  of  Housekeeping  and  also  by  Cooper  Institute  and  similar 
institutions,  are  putting  the  necessary  work  of  the  home  on  the  plane 
of  skilled  labor,  making  it  possible  for  an  intelligent,  self-respecting 
young  woman  who  prefers  to  work  in  a  home  rather  than  in  a  factory 
or  shop  to  do  so  without  loss  of  dignity,  and  at  the  same  time  have  a 
comfortable  home,  no  expenses,  and  a  salary  of  at  least  $20  a  month. 

Home  Occupations.  Hundreds  of  women  are  anxiously  looking 
for  work  by  which  they  can  earn  money  without  leaving  their  homes. 
For  such  the  field  is  narrow,  but  the  time-honored  business  of  "  tak- 
ing boarders"  will  always  be  with  us  and  many  a  woman  thereby 
keeps  her  home  and  makes  her  home  keep  her.  The  boarding- mis- 
tress who  has  a  well-kept,  tasteful,  and  cheery  house,  who  gives  now 
and  then  some  little  comfort  or  accommodation  "  not  nominated  in 
the  bond  "  and  who  offers  wholesome,  appetizing  food,  seldom  lacks 
patronage.  Tact  and  sound  judgment  in  buying  are  most  desirable 
qualifications  in  order  to,  first,  win  the  boarders,  and  then  to  make 
money  out  of  them. 

Dressmaking  can  be  carried  on  advantageously  in  the  home,  and 
the  woman  who  can  make  a  stylish  gown  and  will  accept  a  moderate 
price  for  her  work  will  have  little  difficulty  in  securing  patronage. 


APPENDIX.  729 

Home  bakeries  are  not  so  profitable  as  once  because  of  the  great 
improvement  in  baker's  food  of  all  kinds,  but  a  woman  who  excels  in 
some  one  kind  of  difficult  or  fancy  cooking  can  oftentimes  work  up  a 
sale  for  her  specialty  through  the  local  grocery,  the  woman's  ex- 
change, by  personal  solicitation,  or  advertising. 

Women  living  on  farms  or  small  places  near  cities  have  earned 
money  by  market-gardening,  floriculture,  the  raising  of  small  fruits, 
and  by  the  keeping  of  poultry  or  bees. 

Those  who  can  do  almost  any  one  thing  uncommonly  well  can 
usually  secure  pupils,  and  women  give  home  lessons  in  almost  every 
imaginable  kind  of  work. 

Factory  Workers.  Nearly  one  fourth  of  all  the  women  engaged 
in  gainful  occupations  work  in  factories.  The  following  are  represen- 
tative weekly  wages:  — 

Awnings,  tents,  and  flags,  $4  to  $12  a  week ;  cotton  bagging, 
$4  to  $10  a  week;  boots  and  shoes,  $4.50  to  $24  a  week;  paper 
boxes,  $5  to  $13  a  week;  cotton  goods, —  spinners,  $3  to  $6, 
weavers,  $3.75  to  $12  ;  woolen  goods  —  spinners,  $3.60  to  $6.50, 
weavers,  $3.25  to  $i  I  ;  silk  weavers,  $3.20  to  $15. 

These  are  a  few  of  the  common  industries.  They  are  all  learned 
by  apprenticeship,  payment  is  usually  by  the  piece,  and  the  wide 
range  in  wages  for  the  same  kind  of  work  is  due  to  the  difference  be- 
tween skilled  and  unskilled  labor  and  in  individual  productive  capac- 
ity. 

Preparation.  The  acquired  ability  to  do  some  one  thingwell, which 
is  the  result  of  special  preparation's  becoming  more  and  more  essential. 
This  problem  of  preparation,  calling  for  both  time  and  money,  is  a  diffi- 
cult one  for  the  girl  to  face  to  whom  immediate  self-support  is  a  neces- 
sity. While  the  most  thorough  and  satisfactory  method  of  preparation 
is  to  attend  a  special  school,  fortunately  there  are  ways  by  which  an 
ambitious,  determined  girl  may  fit  herself  for  a  gainful  occupation 


73°       THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MECHANISM. 

either  while  at  home  or  at  work.  Oftentimes  she  can  secure  instruc- 
tion from  a  competent  person  in  her  home  town.  Again,  systems 
for  teaching  by  mail  have  been  so  highly  developed  as  to  include 
nearly  all  branches  of  knowledge,  and  this  method  is  to  be  commended 
to  those  who  cannot  secure  personal  instruction  or  who  cannot  afford 
to  pay  for  it.  Some  of  the  best  correspondence  schools  furnish  com- 
petent instruction  at  low  cost  with  text-books  that  are  marvels  of 
simplicity  and  clearness.  This  method  throws  the  learner  largely 
upon  her  own  resources  from  the  start,  which  compels  thoughtful 
work  and  develops  self-reliance. 

Those  of  limited  means  who  wish  to  attend  art  or  industrial 
schools  can  inform  themselves  as  to  the  opportunities  offered  by  the 
great  endowed  institutions  by  reference  to  the  volume  "  Education 
in  the  Industrial  and  Fine  Arts  in  the  United  States,"  Part  3d,  a 
deeply  interesting  book,  although  a  government  document,  to  be 
found  in  any  public  library.  It  gives  a  detailed  account  of  the 
institutes  in  the  United  States,  established  for  the  purpose  of  aiding 
young  men  and  women  in  developing  their  latent  ability  and  gaining 
thereby  comfortable  self-support. 

All  admit  that  woman's  noblest  employment,  when  worthily  car- 
ried, is  that  of  mother  and  home  maker,  the  nurturer  of  childhood 
and  the  guide  of  youth.  If  it  is  important  that  no  woman  assume 
such  high  responsibilities  with  any  but  high  motives,  and  never 
chiefly  for  the  sake  of  a  subsistence,  then  should  not  every  girl  be 
trained  for  that  self-dependence  which  alone  will  enable  her  to  ex- 
ercise the  freedom  of  choice  which  should  be  her  right? 

Effort  is  the  measure  of  development.  If  "  From  him  that  hath 
not  shall  be  taken  even  that  which  he  hath  "  is  a  calm  statement  of 
the  inexorable  law  of  unused  talents,  then  in  considering  an  occupa- 
tion a  woman  should  remember  that  while  it  is  always  fine  in  her  to 
do  what  she  has  to  do  well  it  may  not  be  fine  in  her  to  choose  the 


APPENDIX.  731 

easier  task  for  the  sake  of  the  negative  satisfaction  of  escaping  re- 
sponsibility. It  has  been  the  ambitious,  courageous  woman,  who 
has  not  feared  to  step  out  of  the  beaten  path,  who  has  cleared  the 
way  for  others  to  follow  in  comfort  and  safety. 


INDEX. 


"Accommodation,"  Steamboat 211 

Acetylene  Gas 299 

Achromatic  Lens 649 

Adams,   Isaac 598 

Advertisement  of  ' '  The  Comet  " 211 

Advertisement  of  "  The  Steamboat  "...    204 

^olipyle 57 ,  6 1 ,  70 

Aerial  Navigation 192 

"  Agememnon  " 547,  543 

Agricultural  Machinery 34 

Agricultural  Machinery,  Advance  in. ...  616 

Air  Brakes 1 56 

Air    Ships,    Count    Zeppelin's   Experi- 
ments with 1 94 

Air  Ship,  Description  of  Count  Zeppe- 
lin's     195 

Air  Ships,  Early  Ideas  of 193 

Air  Ships,  Importance  of 200 

Aladdin  Oven 672 

"  Albatross  " 224 

"  Albemarle  " 459 

All-British  Cable 551 

Alleghany  Portage 164 

Allen,  Ethan 347 

Allen,  Horatio 129,   136 

Allis  Engine 52 

Alloys 34 r ,  342 

Alloys  of  Copper 489 

Aluminum 289,  342,  486,  493 

Aluminum,  Price  of 494 

Aluminum,  Reducing 298 

Aluminum,  Tensile   Strength  of,  com- 
pared with  iron  and  steel 289 

Ampere,  Andre  Marie,  Electro-dynan.ics  259 

Ampere,  Definition  of 277 

Amsterdam  Canal 225 

Anesthetics 34 

Angelo,  Michael 69,    574 

Anglo-American  Telegraph  Company. .    545 
Annealing 331,  341 


PAGE 

Anthracite  Coal 497 

Appian  Way 119 

Appleby,  John  F 620 

Applied  Science  Department,  McGill..  704 

Arago 260,  530 

Arago's  Discovery ' 259 

Archer  Scott 580 

Archimedes 112 

Arc  Light 257,  278,  279 

Arch,  Longest  Stone 355 

Argon  Gas 104 

Aristotle 254 

Arkwright,  Richard 642 

Arlberg  Tunnel 164 

Armor,  Antiquity  of 437 

Armor,  Harveyized 390 

Armor- making,  Krupp  Process  of 391 

Armor- Piercing  Shells 393 

Armor- Piercing  Shells,  Cost  of 394 

Armour,  Philip  D 677 

Armstrong,  Sir  William 332,  399,  418 

Art  Academy  of  Cincinnati 707 

Art  Institution  of  Chicago 704 

Art  Students'  League 703 

Artillery,  Moors  introduced 415 

Atbara  Bridge 367 

Atchison,   E.  G 286 

Atchison,   Topeka  and  Sante  Fe  Rail- 
road    135 

Atkinson,  Professor  Edward 672 

Atlantic  Cable 219 

Atlantic  Telegraph  Company 542 

Attalus 590 

Automatic  Binder 619 

Automatic  Pistols 413 

Automobile 183 

Automobile,  Advantage  of  the  Rubber 

Tire 187 

Automobile  Challenge  Cup 191 

Automobile,  Electric  Motor. . .  .• 190 


734 


INDEX. 


Automobile,  Final  Ascendency  of 186 

Automobile,  Means  of  Propulsion 187 

Automobile,  Opposition  to 185 

Automobile,  Prize  for  military  machine.  192 

Automobile  Race,  The  First 186 

Automobiles,  Ancient 184 

Automobiles,  Speed  Records 191 

Automobiles,  Storage  Batteries  for 298 

Automobile  vs.  Express  Train 191 

"Auto's  "  Hard  Struggle 185 


Bacilli 657 

Bacon,  Roger 467,  575,  581 

Bacteria 656 

Bacteriology 653 

Bain,  Alexander 53_j,  612 

Balboa 146 

Baldwin,  Matthias  W 79,  82,  88 

Baldwin  Locomotive  Works 79,  86 

Balloon,  Electric  Battery 194 

Balloon,  First  Dirigible 193 

Balloon,  Russian  Dirigible 194 

Balloons 193 

Balloons,  Long  distance  records 193 

Balloons,  Use  of  in  Siege  of  Paris 193 

Baltic  and  North  Sea  Canal 226 

Baltic  Steamship 219 

Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad.  ..78,  132,  136 
Bank    Depositors   in    Agricultural    and 

Factory  Districts    699 

Barbette,  The 453 

Batteries,  Primary 456 

Batteries,  Secondary 456 

Battery,  Storage 292 

Battle  Ship,  Requirements 447 

Bayer,  Prof.  V 679 

Beach,  A.  E 165,  613 

Beach  Typewriter 613 

Beecher,   Henry  Ward 626 

Behel,  Jacob 620 

Bell  Metal 489 

Bell,  Henry 212 

Bell,  Rev.  Patrick 618 

Bell  Telephone  Co 694 

Bell's  First  Telephone 555 


Bensley ,  Thos 598 

Berliner,  Emile 562 

Berlin  Tenements 171 

Bessemer  Process,   Steel-Making 332 

Bessemer,  Sir  Henry 136,  290,  332,  334, 

336»  353»  363»  4i9»  698 

"  Best  Friend  of  Charleston," 78 

Bethlehem  Steel  Company. . .  .338,  339,  345, 

39^697 

Bible  Normal  College 712 

Bicycle,    Estimated    Yearly  Production 

of 183 

Bicycle,  The  effect  of,  on  good  roads.  . .    183 

Bicycles,  First, 181 

Bicycles 183 

Binder,  Automatic 619 

Birthplace  of  Civilization 224 

Bituminous  Coals 496 

Black  Powder 469 

Blaew,  William  Jensen 597 

Blast  Furnace 323 

Blast  Furnaces,  By- Products  of 68 1 

Blast,  Hot  Air 329 

Block  Signaling  System 153 

"  Boneshaker,"  The 182 

Bones,  Straightening  Crooked 66 1 

Boston,  Advantage  of  Rapid  Transit. . .    171 
Boston  South  Terminal  Station.  .  ..387,  388 

Boston's  Subways 1 76 

Boston  University 712 

Bourne,  William 461 

Boulton,  Matthias 65,  73 

Bounty  Act,  Canadian ._.  . .   348 

Brain,  Operating  on  the 657 

Brakes,  Air 156 

Brakes,  Early 155 

Brakes,  Locomotive 155 

Brake,  Modern 1 57 

Brakes,  Westinghouse  Air 156 

Bramah,  Joseph 203 

Brandt,  M 163 

Brass 4§9 

Breckenridge,   L.  P 707 

Bremen  Line 217 

Brickill,  William  A 683 

Bridge,  Atbara 367 


INDEX. 


735 


Bridge,  Brooklyn 357 

Bridge,  Cantilever 364 

Bridge,  Forth 364 

Bridge,  First  Steel 363 

Bridge,  Girder 36 1 

Bridge,   London 356 

Bridge,  Longest 363 

Bridge,  Niagara 359 

Bridge,  Oldest 355 

Bridge,  Quebec 368 

Bridge,  Tubular 362 

Bridge,  Victoria 362 

Bridges 353 

Bridges,  Suspension 353 

Bridgewater,  Francis,  Duke  of,  121,  231,  232 

Brindley,   James 232 

British  and  American  Steam  Navigation 

Company 214 

British  Cable,  All- 551 

Bronze 429 

"Brooklyn,"  Cruiser ....  341,  450,  454,455 

Brown,  Alexander 312 

"  Brown  Bess," 402 

Brown,  Moses 644 

Brown  Powder 470 

Bruce,  David 609  j 

Buchanan,  President  James 544 

"Buffalo  Bill" 135   J 

Bullet  Pouch 403   | 

Bursting  Charge  of  Projectiles 393   | 

Burt,   Wm.  Austin 61 1    j 

Bushnell,   David 203,  462 

By-Products 676 

c 

Cable,  First  Wire  Suspension 357 

Cable  Roads,  Street 170 

Cables,  Mechanism  of 547 

Cables,   Submarine 540 

Cables,  Uses  of 551 

Caisson  Disease 378 

Caisson,   Pneumatic 378 

Calcium  Carbide 299 

Camden  and  Amboy  Railroad 134 

Camera,  Scientific  Use  of  the 583 

Cameron,  Honorable  Simon 132 


Canada,  Haven  of  refuge  for  slaves .... 

Canada,  Railroads  of 

Canadian  Atlantic  Express 

Canadian  Bounty  Act 

Canadian  Canals 233, 

Canadian      Colonization,      Picturesque 

Features  of 

Canadian  Iron  Output 

Canadian  Northern  Railway 

Canadian  Ore  Deposits 

Canadian  Pacific  Overland  Railway. . .  . 

Canadian  Pacific  Railway 

143,  144,  234,246, 
Canadian  Pacific  Railway's  Inducement 

to  Emigrants 

Canadian  Postal  Service 

Canadian  Railroad   Statistics 

Canadian  Railway  Expenditure 

Canadian  Railways,  The  Great  Era  of. 

Canal,  Amsterdam 

Canal,  Busiest  in  the  World 

Canal,  Chicago  Drainage 236, 

Canal  Congress  at  Paris 

Canal,  Difficulties  with  Panama 

Canal,  Effect  on  Freight  Rates 

Canal,  Erie 

Canal,  Grand  (China) 

Canal,  Hydraulic  Lock 

Canal,  Isthmus  of  Corinth. 

Canal,  Largest  Canadian 

Canal,  Manchester 

Canal,  Rideau 

Canal,  Shifting  Course  of  Trade 

Canal,  Soulanges 

Canal,  South  Hadley,  Mass 

Canal,  Suez 

Canal,   Welland 

Canals 

Canals,  Canadian 

Canals,  Chinese 

Canals,  Early 

Canals,  Effect  on  Price  of  Wheat 

Canals,  English 

Canals,  French 

Canals,  Miles  of,  in  Germany 

Canals,  St.  Lawrence 


PAGE 

249 
141 

144 
348 

235 

249 

349 
144 

349 


248 

249 

567 
'45 
MS 
142 

225 
237 

313 
229 
229 
232 
238 
225 
238 
226 

234 
232 

234 
236 

234 
238 

227 

234 
224 

233 
225 
224 

243 
231 
227 
226 
235 


736 


INDEX. 


Cancer,  Surgery's  Battle  with 663 

Cannon,  Evolution  of  the 414 

Cantilever  Bridge 364 

Cantilever  Crane 312,  314 

Carbon  Paper 615 

Carborundum 286,  287,  288 

Car  Coupler 1 53 

Carlisle 257 

Cartridge,  Electric 292 

Cartridge,  Evolution  of  the  Metallic.  . .    400 

Cascade  Tunnel 164 

Case  School  of  Applied  Science 704 

Castings,  How  Smoothed 100 

Cast  Iron 327 

Cast  Steel 332 

Cataract 665 

Caveat 686 

Caving,  Mining 305,  306 

"  Celerifere  " 182 

Central  London  Railway 175 

Centrifugal  Milk  Skimmer 630 

Chandler  Scientific  School 704 

Charcoal,  Iron  Smelting 322 

Charleston  and  Hamburg  Railroad 133 

Chicago  Drainage  Canal 236,  313 

China,  Miles  of  Railroad  in 225 

China,  Telegraph  Line  in 225 

Chinese  Canals 225 

Chromium 342 

Civilization,  Birthplace  of 224 

Classification  of  War  Ships 446 

Clay  Process  of  Printing 609 

Clerkships,  Government 722 

Cleveland   Homeopathic   Medical    Col- 
lege      711 

Coals,  Bituminous 496 

Coal  Contrasted  with  Human  Energy. .    501 

Coal  Gas 505 

Coal  Mining 495 

Coal  Supply  and  Consumption 499 

Coal  Tar 678 

"Coal  Oil  Johnnie" 517 

Coal  Tar  Colors 679 

Coal,  World's  Production  of 504 

Cocci 657 

Coherer,  The , .    537 


Coke  Furnaces,  By-Products 6Si 

Coke,  Iron  Smelting 322 

Coke  Manufacture 498 

Colt    Automatic  Machine  Gun 432 

Colt  Pistol,  Automatic 414 

Colt  Revolvers 413 

"  Columbia  " 435 

Columbia  University  School  of  Archi- 
tecture     704 

"  Columbian  "  Press,  The 597 

Combustion 43 

"  Comet," 211 

Compass,  Early 268 

Compositors 719 

Compound  Armor 390 

Compound  Engines 83 

Compound  Stationary  Engine 53 

Compressed  Air,  Uses  of.  .97,  98,  101,  102, 

103,  no 

Compression  Band 399 

Comptometer 615 

Condenser  Saves,  How  a 57 

Condensation  of  Steam 50 

Conductors  of  Electricity 276 

Conning  Tower 454 

"  Constitution  " 347 

"  Constitution's  "  Guns 416 

"  Constitution"  vs.  "  Oregon  "  435,  436,  437 

Consumption,  Surgery  and 662 

Converter  Linings 334,  335 

Cookery 715 

Cooper,  Peter 78,  133 

Cooper  Union 703,  722-724 

Copley  Oil  Well 516 

Copper 489 

Copper  for  Ship-building 490 

Copper  Mines  of  Lake  Superior 491 

Copper  Refining 491 

Cordite 472 

Corliss's  Engine 67 

Corn,  By-products  of 680 

Cornell  University 705,  712 

Cost  of  Passage  from  Europe  to  Winni- 
peg      249 

Cost  of  Transportation  in  South  Amer- 
ica     124 


INDEX. 


737 


Cotton  and  Cotton  Manufacturing 635 

Cotton   Crop  of   the  United  States  for 

1899 640 

Cotton  Gin 27,  636 

Cotton  Industry,  Growth  of 645 

Cotton  Mill,  Modern 644 

Cotton  Mills,  First  in  America 644 

Cotton  Product  of  the  United  States.  . .  636 

Cotton  Seed 677 

Cotton  Seed  Oil 678 

Court  Stenographers 722 

Crank  and  Valve  Gear,  Invention  of . .  .  66 

Crefeld  School  of  Weaving 704 

Crookes  Tubes 585 

Cruisers 448 

Cruiser,  Armored 451 

Cruiser,  Protected 451 

Cruiser   Requirements 447 

Cunard  Line 217 

Cyanide  Process,  Gold 484 

D 

Daguerre,  Louis 577 

Daguerreotype 577 

Dairy  Industry,  Growth  of 629 

Dairy  Machinery . .   629 

Damascus  Steel 329 

"  Dandy  Horse  " 182 

Dangers  of  Mining 503 

Danger  Signal 160 

Danger  Space 398 

Daniell  Cell,  The 265 

Davy,  Sir  Humphry 104,  no,  258,  259, 

261,  278,  281,  503,  576 
Davy's  Experiments  with  the  Arc  Light  257 

De  Laval  Separator 630 

De  Laval  Turbine 222 

Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal 127 

De  Lesseps,  Ferdinand 227,  228,  230 

Demonstrating 725 

Dentistry,  Women  in 712 

"  Deutschland,"  Conveniences  of 216 

Diamonds,  Manufactured 286 

Dirigible  Balloon,  Russian 194 

Disappearing  Gun  Carriages 425 

Displacement  of  Vessels 448 


Distaff  and  Spindle 640 

Division  of  Wealth 699 

Does     Increased     Production     Benefit 

Mankind  ? 695 

Dominion  of  Canada  and  Colonization .  248 

Drainage  Canal,  Chicago. 313 

"  Draisine  " 181 

Draper,  Professor  John  W. . .    579,  582,  647 

Driggs-Schroeder  gun 430 

Dressmaking 725 

Drexel  Institute 706 

Dutton  Pneumatic  Lock .   239,  240,  241,  242 

Dynamo 270,  271,  274 

Dynamos  and  Electric  Motors 275 

Dynamos',  Construction  of  First 272 

E 

Early  Iron  Works 346 

Early  Scribes,  Methods  of 588 

Eastern  Question,  The 151 

Eastern  Steam  Navigation  Co 217 

Eastman,  Walker  and  Co 581 

Ebers  Papyrus 590 

Edison  Incandescent  Lamp 282 

Edison,  Thomas  Alva.  52,  245,  273,  535,  536, 

561,  565,  691 

Effect  of  Machinery  on  Labor 38 

Efforts  to  Harness  the  Sun 112 

Eginton,  Francis 576 

Eiffel  Tower 364 

Elastic  Limit  —  Steel 341 

Electric  Cartridge 292 

Electric  Flatiron 284 

Electric  Furnaces 285 

Electric  Heating 284 

Electricity 251 

Electricity,    Advantages    as    a    Motive 

Power. 173 

Electricity,  "  Animal  " 256 

Electricity,  Frictional 262 

Electricity,  Many  Uses  of 300 

Electricity,  Measures  of 276 

Electricity,     "  step-up  "     and     "  step- 
down'"  processes 277,  278 

Electric  Light  Plants  in  the  U.  S.,  Value 

of 284 


INDEX. 


Electric  Motor  Automobiles 190 

Electric  Quilts 284 

Electric  Railroads 276,  372 

Electric  Street  Cars 30 

Electric  Surgeon's  Knife 284 

Electric  Telegraph 527 

Electric  Welding. 284 

Electro-Magnetic  Concentration  of  Ore.  316 

Electroplating 290 

Elevated  Railroads  in  New  York 170 

Elevators 31 ,  385 

Emerson  College  of  Oratory 715 

Emigrants  from  Europe  to  Canada 249 

Emigration  to  Siberia 248 

Emigration  to  the  Northwest 248 

Emigration  to  the  West 248 

Empire  State  Express 88,  90,  135 

Empire  Typesetting  Machine, 607 

"  Empress  of  India  " 428 

Energy 40,  4 1 

Energy  of  Gun  Fire 396 

Enfield  Rifle 406 

Engine,   Corliss 67 

Engine,  Compound  Stationary 53 

Engine,  Gas 92 

Engine,  Improvement  from  Accident.  .  62 

Engine,  Newcomen's 61 

Engine,  Single  Cylinder 53 

Engine,  Triple  Expansion 53 

Engine  Waste 50 

Engines,  Best  Records  of 52 

Engines,  Compound 83 

Engines,  Multiple  Expansion 53 

Engines  in  America,  The  Pioneer 77 

Engineering  Feats,  Some 138 

England's  Dependence  on  Transporta- 
tion  119 

English  Canals 231 

Engraving,  Half-Tone 584 

Engraving,  Photo- 584 

Ericsson's  First  Motor  Generator 112 

Ericsson,  John 76,  112,  1 14,  193,  348, 

439'  44i 

Ericsson's  Monitor 445 

Ericsson's  Propeller 441 

Ericsson 's  Sun  Motor in 


Erie  Canal 235,  238 

Evolution  of  the  Locomotive 69 

Evolution  of  the  Metallic  Cartridge. .  . .  400 

Evolution  of  the  Modern   Cannon 414 

Evolution  of  the  Modern  Gun 417 

Evolution  of  the  Modern  War  Ship.  . . .  434 

Evolution  of  the  Rifle 401 

Evolution  of  the  Steamboat 201 

Evolution  of  the  Steam  Engine 57 

Explosive  Gelatin 476 

Explosives,  Destructive  Effect  of 396 

Eye,  Surgery  of  the 665 

Eyes,  Glass 667 

F 

Factory  System  vs.  Sweating  System.  . .  26 

Factory  Workers 729 

"  Faraday  " 547 

Faraday  and  the  Modern  Dynamo 270 

Faraday,  Michael.  . .  104,  252,  258,  261,  267, 

269,  290,  530,  564 

Fastest  Steamship 223 

Fast  Trains 89 

Fast  Trains  in  Canada 144 

Field,  Cyrus  W 541,  542,  546 

Firearms,   first  introduced 404 

Fire  Brick 323,  384 

Firefly 285 

Fireproof  Buildings 383 

First  American  Locomotive .  .  129 

First  American  Railroad ... 1 28 

First  American  Steamboat. 202 

First  Automobile  Race 186 

First  Balloon  Ascension 192 

|  First  Bicycles 1 8 1 

First  Cable  Road 170 

I  First  Canal  in  the  United  States 238 

|   First  Cotton  Mills  in  America 644 

First  Electric   Street  Railway  in  Amer- 
ica   173 

First  Iron  Clad  Vessels 444 

First  Iron  Foundry 347 

First  Iron  Steamships 213 

First  Iron  Works  in  Canada 348 

First  Locomotive  on  Rails 72 

i   First  Magnetic  Needles 268 


INDEX. 


739 


PAGE 

First  Man  Killed  by  Railroad 77 

First  Passenger  Cars 127 

First  Railway  in  Canada 141 

First  Reaping  Machine 617 

First  Remington  Typewriter 614 

First  Revolver 412 

First  Rolling  Mill 322 

First  Steam  Carriage 70 

First  Steamboat  Line  in  Great  Britain.    211 

First  Steam  Pumping  Engine 58 

First  Steam  Railway 125 

First  Steamship  to  cross  the  Atlantic. .    212 
First  Steamship   Voyage  around   Good 

Hope 213 

First  Steel  Bridge 363 

First  Steamboat 202 

First  Steel  Buildings 375 

First  Telegraph  Line  in  America     ....    552 
First  Trial  of  Maxim's  Flying  Machine.    199 

First  Typewriter 61 1 

First  Use  of  Steam  Engine 60 

First  Underground  Railroad 175 

First  War  Steamer 431 

First  Wheeled  Vehicles 179 

First  Wire  Suspension  Cable 357 

Fish  Scales 676 

Fitch  Steamboat 204,  207 

Flail 623 

Flat  Bed  Cylinder  Press 598 

Flatiron,  Electric 284 

Flintlock 403 

Flying  Machines  and  Balloons 196 

Flying  Machine,  Maxim's 199 

Fly   Shuttle 642 

Forth  Bridge 364 

Foss  Dyke 231 

"  Fountain  of  Youth  " 253 

France,  Canals  of 227 

Franklin,  Benjamin..    193,  264,  347,  597,  602 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  and  Electricity. .  .  .    254 

Franklin's  Notes  on  Electricity 255 

Free  Delivery  of  Freight  in  England. . .     77 

Free  Postal  Delivery 569 

Freight,  Average  in  the  U.  S.,  1899 245 

Freight  Rate  in  Canada 144 

Fuel  Economizer,  Green's 54 


Fuel  Gas 507 

Fulton,  Robert.  122,  201,  203,  204,  207,  208, 

2IO>  437,  439'  462 

Fulton's  "  Clermont  " 208,  209 

Fulton's  Ride  in  the  "Charlotte  Dundas"  2c8 

"Fulton the  First" 438 

Furnace,  Electric 285 

Furnace,  Iron 322 

Furnace,  Reverberatory 328 

Fuses,  Percussion '  395 

Fuses,  Time 395 


G 


261 


92,  93,  94,  95, 


529 
255 
260 

554 

189 

28 

505 


Galvani 

Galvani's  Experiments 
Galvanic  Multiplier. . .  . 
Galvanometer,  Mirror  . 
Gas  Engines  ......... 

Gas,  Illuminating 

Gas  Manufacture 

Gas  Wells 508 

Gathmann  Shell 395 

Catling  Guns 431,  432,  433 

Geissler  Tubes 586 

German  Canals 226 

German  Silver 490 

Gibraltar 227 

Giffard  Injector,  The 83 

Giffard,  Henri 'i 93 

Gilbert,  Dr.,  Creator  of  the  Science  of 

Electricity 253,  268 

Girder  Bridges 361 

Gold 478 

Gold  and  Silver  Plating 291 

Gold  and  Silver  Production 487 

Gold  Mining 477 

Gold  Nuggets 483 

Government  Control  of  Railroads 246 

Grain  Elevators 632 

Grain  Storage  and  Handling 630 

Gramme  Dynamo  as  a  Motor 275 

Gramophone 562 

Grand  Luenette   Telescope 651 

Grand  Trunk  Railroad..    142,  143,  144,  234 

Graphite 498 

Graphophone 562 


740 


INDEX. 


Gray,  Professor  Elisha 555,  558,  560 

"Great   Eastern".    217,  218,  219,  220,  545 

Great  Guns  of  the  World 424 

Greathead  Shield 175 

Greathead  Tunnel  Shield 165,  1 66 

Great  Northern  Railway 135,  181 

Great  Western  Railroad  Tunnel 165 

Great  Western  Railway 214 

Green's  Fuel  Economizer 54 

Grover  Incandescent  Lamp 281 

Gun    Cotton 474 

Gun,  Evolution  of  the  Modern 417 

Gun  Firing,  Cost  of 429 

Guns,  Great 424 

Gun  Metal 489 

Gun,  Most  Powerful 422 

Gunpowder 467 

Gutenberg's  Press 595 

GuttaPercha 548 

H 

Half-tone  Engravings 584 

Harvesting,  Cost  of 626 

Harvesting,  Old  and  New 626 

Harveyized  Armor 290 

Heat  Causes  Motion 42 

Heating,  Electric 284 

Heliograph 528 

Henry's  Improved  Iron  Magnet 260 

Henry,  Prof.   Joseph 267,  274,  530 

Hero 57,  61,  69,  70,  203 

"  Hertzian  Waves  " 537 

High  Buildings 386 

Highest  Building  in  the  World 371 

"  Hobby  Horse  " • 182 

Hoe  and  Co 599 

Hoe  Type  Revolving  Machine 600 

"  Holland,"  Description  of 463 

Holland,  John  P 462,  463 

Hoosac  Tunnel 164 

Horse  Cars  in  America 1 69 

Horse  Cars  in  Europe 169 

Horse  Power 42 

Hot  Air  Blast 329 

Housekeeper's  Debt  to  Invention 668 

Housekeeping  a  Century  Ago 669 


Howell  Torpedo 461 

Hudson  Bay  Company 248 

Hussy  Reaper 619 

Hydraulic  Mining 479 

Hydraulic  Press 339 


Illuminating  Gas 28 

Improvements  for  the  Household 672 

Incandescent  Lamp 280,  282 

Intercolonial  Railroad 144 

International  Express 144 

Invention,  Housekeeper's  Debt  to 668 

Invention,  How  to  Make  and  Patent  an  681 

Invention,  Infringement  Suits 682 

Invention  of  the  Crank  and  Valve  Gear  66 

Inventions  Create  Occupations 694 

Inventions,  Profitable 683 

Iron  and  Steel  Working 301 

Iron  and  Steel,  World's  Production  of. .  352 

Ironclad  Vessels,  First 444 

Iron  Foundry,  First 347 

Iron  Ores 319 

Iron     Production     of    the    Century   in 

TJ  nited  States 350 

Iron,  progress  of  the  industry 303 

Iron  Smelting 319 

Iron  Works,  Early 346 

Iron  Works,  First,  in  Canada 348 

Iron,  Wrought 328 

Isthmus  of  Corinth  Canal. .                     .  226 


Janney  Car  Coupler 153 

"John  Bull" 78 

Journalism 717 

Journey  between  Boston  and  New  York 

by  Carriage 1 28 

K 

"  Kearsarge  " 395 

Kelvin,  Lord 42,554 

Kerosene 680 

Kineto- Phonograph 566 

Kinetoscope 565 

Kinzua  Viaduct 366 


INDEX. 


741 


Klondike  Stampede 249 

Krag-Jorgensen  Rifle 409 

Krupp  Process  of  Armor  Making 391 

Krupp  Steel , 332 


Labor,  Does  Machinery  Displace 692 

Lake    Shore    and    Michigan    Southern 

Railroad 133 

Lancaster  Guns 399 

Land,  Enormous  Prices  of 371 

Largest  Canadian  Canal 234 

Largest  Steamship 220 

Lawrence  Scientific  School 704 

•    Lay  College 712 

Lecturers 717 

Lee  Magazine  Gun 406 

Legal  Profession,  Men  in  the 703 

Legal  Profession,  Women  in  the 712 

Leyden  Jar,  The 254 

Librarians 718 

Lick  Telescope 650 

Light,  Arc 257 

'    Light,  Incandescent 280 

Light,  Search 280 

Lignite 496 

Linotype  Machine 604 

Liquid  Air 103 

Liquid  Air  Automobiles 191 

Liquid  Air  as  an  Explosive 475 

Liquid  Air,  Cost  of 105,  106 

Liquid  Air,  Experiments  with 108 

Liquid  Air,  Power  of 105 

Liquid  Air,  Wonders  of 107 

Literature 716 

Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railroad.  ...     77 

Loadstone 253,  260,  267 

"Locomobile" 187,188 

Locomotive,  An  Experiment  in  Speed. .     91 

Locomotive  "  Bessemer  " 87 

Locomotive  Brakes 155 

Locomotive,  Evolution  of  the 69 

Locomotive,  First  American 129 

Locomotive,  First,  on  Rails 72 

Locomotive,  First  Passenger 74 

Locomotive,  Largest 87 


Locomotive,  record  of  fast  trains 91 

Locomotive  Schedule  of  fastest  Long 

Distance  Trains 90 

Locomotive  Schedule  of  fastest  Short 

Distance  Trains 89 

Locomotive,  Trial  Trip  of  first  American  130 

Locomotives,  used  in  mines 86 

London  and  Birmingham  Stagecoach 

Line 181 

London  and  Edinburgh  Stagecoach 

Line 181 

London  Bridge 1 59,  356 

Long  Bridges,  Table  of 369 

Long  Distance  Telephone 557 

Long  Island  Railroad 183 

Loss  of  Life  on  Russian  Railroads. ...  151 

Lucifer  Matches 676 

Lyddite 473 

M 

Macadam 181 

Machinery  and  Savings  Banks 699 

Machinery  and  Wages 696 

Machinery  Displace  Labor,  Does 692 

Machinery  Increases  Wealth 698 

Machinery,  Labor  and  Wealth 691 

Machinery,  Modern 25 

Machinery,  Textile 25 

Magnet,  Influence  of 269 

Magnetism 260 

Magnetite,  Where  found 254 

Magnetized  Iron 260 

Manchester  Ship  Canal 232 

Manganese 342 

Manifolding,  Typewriter 615 

Mannlicher 406,  413 

Man's  Work  and  Training 701 

Manual  Training  Schools 702 

Marconi 252,  558 

Marconi  System  of  Telegraphy 538 

Massachusetts     Institute    of   Technol- 
ogy.  704,  706 

Mauser 406,  413 

Maxim  Gun 430, 432,  433 

Maxim's  Flying  Machine 197,  199 

Maxwell's  Theory  as  to  Light 252 


742 


INDEX. 


McCormick  Reaper 618 

McGill  University 550 

McGill    University,    Entrance  Require- 
ments     708 

Means  of  Communication 527 

Measures  of  Electricity 276 

Mechanical  Progress  in  Surgery 654 

Medical  Profession,  Men  in  the 703 

Medical  Profession,  Women  in  the 711 

Mennonites 249 

"  Merrimac  " 389,  446 

Mersey  Tunnel 165 

Microscope 652 

Microscope,  a  detector  of  crime 653 

Microscope,  Compound 652 

Microscope,  The  Surgeon's  Debt  to  the,  652 

Midland  Railway 185 

Military  Art  and  Science 389 

Millinery 724 

Milling  ( Mining) 305,  307 

Mineral  Coal 496 

Mineral  Industries 477 

Mines,  Danger  of  Electric  Lighting  in..    109 

Minie  Ball 406 

Mining,  Coal 495 

Mining,  Dangers  of 503 

Mining,  Four  Systems  of 305 

Mining,  Gold 478 

Mining,  Hydraulic 479 

Mining,  Placer 478 

Mining,  Shaft 482 

Mining  Silver 485 

Mining,  Terrors  of  Old  Time no 

Mining,  Uses  of  Compressed  Air  in. .  .    101 

Ministry,  Woman  in  the 712 

Minneapolis  Academy  cf  Fine  Arts. . . .   704 

"  Minnesota  " 458 

Modern   Machinery 25 

Modern  Machinery  and  Its  Benefits  to 

Mankind 25 

Modern  Occupations  for  Women 710 

Mohammed's  Magnetic  Tomb 268 

"  Monitor  " 76,  348,  442,  457 

"  Monitor  "  and  "  Merrimac  " 389 

"  Monitor,"  Ericsson's 445 

"  Monitor  "  vs.  "  Puritan  " 446 


Monk  Haven  .......................    235 

Monroe,  President  James,  Trip  in  the 

"  Savannah  "  ...................    212 

'  '  Montauk  "  ........................  389 

Mont  Cenis  Tunnel  ..................    163 

Montreal  to  Winnipeg,  Cost  of  Trip  at 

Harvest  Time  ..................    249 

Moody  Bible  Training  School  .........    712 

Morse  Code  ........................    532 

Morse,  Samuel  F.  B.  .  528,  531,  534,  577,  579 
Mortars  ............................    426 

Most  Powerful  Gun  in  the  World  ......   422 

Most  Powerful  Search  Light  ..........    280 

Motor,  Electric  ......................    173 

Motor,  Ericsson's  Sun  ............  in,  112 

Motor,  Principle  of  ..................    271 

Moving  Picture  Machines  .............    564 

Moving  Platform  vs.  Elevators  ........    179 

Mount  Lowe  Observatory  Search  Light.    280 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts  ................    703 

Mushet,  Robert  F..  .  .329,  333,  334,  353,  363 

Music  Teaching  .....................    715 

Muzzle  Velocity  .....................  397 


Natural  Gas  ........................    507 

Naval  Guns  Using  Smokeless  Powder.  .    430 
Navigation,  Importance  of  Steam  .....    213 

Newcomen's  Engine  ..............  ...      61 

New  England  Conservatory  of  Music.  .    716 
Newfoundland  Iron  Ore  ..............    350 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac  .....  '.  .......  69,  70,  257 

New  York  and  New  Haven  Railroad.  .  .  134 
New  York  Central  and  Hudson  River 

Railroad  ....................  ....    131 

New  York  Central  Railroad  ......  133,  135 

New  York  Cooking  School  ...........    715 

New  York  School  of  Applied  Design  .  .  .    724 
New  York  School  of  Art   ............   703 

New  York's  Subways.  ,  ..............    176 

"  Niagara  "  .....................  542,  543 

Niagara  Power  Company  .............    287 

Niagara  Power  Plant  Current,  how 

transformed  .....................    278 

Nickel  .............................   34  1 

"999"  ..........................  9°»  US 


INDEX. 


743 


Nitroglycerin 475 

Northern  Pacific  Railroad 135 

Numerograph 615 

Nurse,  Infant's 713 

Nurse,  Sick 713 

o 

"Oceanic"    219 

Octuple  Printing  Press 602 

Oersted's  Discovery 258 

"  Ohm,"  Definition  of 277 

Oil  Pipe  Lines 518 

Oil,  Storage  and  Transportation  of 518 

"  Old  Ironsides  " 79,  85,  88,  134 

"  Olympia  " 451 

Open- Hearth    Process    of    Steel    Mak- 
ing  336,337 

Operating  on  the  Brain 657 

Optics 646 

Ore  Deposits,  Canadian 348 

Ore  Docks 309 

Ore,  Electric  Magnetic  Concentration  of  316 

Ore  Handling  Machinery 311 

Ore,  Price  of 315 

Ore,  Reduction  of 482 

Ores,  Iron 319 

"Oregon  " 435,  436,  437,  441,  450,  454 

Osgoode  Hall 712 

"  Otto  Cycle  " 93 


Painting  and  Sweeping  by  Compressed 

Air 101 

Panama  Canal,  Report  of  International 

Commission  on 229,  230 

Panama  Railroad,  Peculiarities  of 146 

Panning  (Mining) 479 

Paper 588,  592 

Paper  Folding  Machines 60 1 

Paper  Made  from  Rags 592 

Papier- Mache,  Process  of  Making 609 

Papin,  Denis. . . .  59,  60,  61,  62,  64,  69,  185, 

202,  569,  691 

Papyrus 590 

Papyrus  and  Parchment,  Substitute  for.    591 
Parchment 590 


PAGE 

"Paris  " 102 

Park  Row  Building 370 

Parsons  Steam  Turbine 221 

Passenger  Cars,  The  First 127 

Pasteur 652 

Patent  Attorneys 685 

Patent,  Cost  of 688 

Patent,  First 690 

Patent,  how  obtained 684 

Patents  issued  by  Nine  Countries 690 

Peat 496 

Pecos  Viaduct 366 

Pennsylvania  Academy  of  Fine  Arts. .  .    703 
Pennsylvania  College  of  Dental  Surgery  713 

Pennsylvania  Railroad 134,  135 

Pennsylvania  School  of  Industrial  Art.    704 

Pennsylvania  Steel  Co 367 

Persian  Methods  of  Iron  Smelting  ....    321 

Petroleum 509,  510 

Pratt  Institute 705 

Philippines,  Route  of  Telegraph   Mes- 
sage to  the 553 

"  Philosopher's  Stone  ". . . .  .....    253,  690 

"  Phoenix  " 210,  211 

Phonograph 561 

Photo-engraving 584 

Photograph,  how  made 581 

Photography  and  Printing. 574 

Photography  of  the  Heavens 582 

Piano  Tuning 716 

Picturesque  Features  of  Canadian  Colo- 
nization      249 

Pig  Iron  Casting 326 

Pistols,  Automatic 413 

Piston 47,  48 

Placer  Mining 478 

Placers 477 

Platform,  Rolling 178 

Plows 62 1 

Pneumatic  Caisson 378 

Pneumatic  Carriers 570 

Pneumatic  Grain  Elevators 633 

Pneumatic  Hammer 99 

Pneumatic  Tire 182 

Pneumatic  Tube  Postal  Service 569 

Pneumatic  vs.  Hand  Hammer 99 


744 


INDEX. 


Pollak-Virag  Telegraph  System 535 

' '  Pomone  " 441 

Pony  Express 572 

Pope  Manufacturing  Co 183 

Postal  Service 566 

Postal  Union 568 

Potassium,  Discovery  of 257 

Powder,  Black 469 

Powder,  Brown 469 

Powderhorn 403 

Powder,  Smokeless 471 

Power  for  Mines 109 

Power,  its  production  and  use 40 

Practical  Efficiency  of  the  Steam  Engine     49 
Primitive  Methods  of  Iron  Smelting. .  .   320 

' '  Princeton  " 44 1 

Principles  of  the  Dynamo 271 

Printing 36,  594 

Printing,  Early , 595 

Printing  Press,  Flat  Bed  Cylinder 598 

Printing  Press  "  Columbia  " 597 

Printing  Press,  Gutenberg's 595 

Printing  Press,  Octuple 602 

Printing  Press,  Sextuple 601 

Printing  Press,  Stop  Cylinder 599 

Printing  Press,  Single  Large  Cylinder. .    599 

Printing  Press,  "  Washington  " 597 

Printing  Processes,  Modern 38 

Production  Benefit  Mankind,  Does  In- 
creased      695 

Progress  Sacrifices  Capital 697 

Projectiles 392 

Projectiles,  Bursting  Charge  of 393 

Prussian  Needle  Gun. 407 

Puddling 328 

Q 

Quebec  Bridge 368 

Quick  and  Cheap  Transportation 119 

K 

Railroad,  Accident  to  Employees.  .....  151 

Railroad  Consolidation,  Beginning  of ..  133 

Railroad,  how  built 137 

Railroad,  Longest,  in  America 143 

Railroad,  Longest,  in  the  World 149 


Railroad     Management,     Departments 

of 139,  141 

Railroad,  Miles  of,  in  Canada 142 

Railroad,  Miles  of,  in  Europe 135 

Railroad,  Miles  of,  in  United  States.  .  .    135 

Railroad,  Panama 146 

Railroad,  Trans-Siberian 148 

Railroads 1 24 

Railroads  and  Morality 245 

Railroads,  Electric 276 

Railroads,  Government  Control  of. ...    246 
Railroads,  Loss  of  Life  on  Russian.. . .    151 

Railroads  of   Canada 141 

Railroads  of  Germany 246 

Railroads  Stimulate  Emigration 248 

Railroads,   Short  Lines  of 130 

Railroads  Statistics,  Canadian 145 

Railroads,  Surveying  for 137 

Rails,  Steel 136 

Railway,  The  First  Steam 125 

Railways,  The  Great  Era  of  Canadian.    142 

Rainhill  Contest 75,  77,  78,  79,  88,  186 

Range  of  Great  Guns 428 

Rapid  Transit 168 

Rapid    Transit   by    means   of    Moving 

Platforms 179 

Rapid  Transit,  Growth  of 169 

Rapid  Transit,  Political  Significance  of.    171 

"  Rattler" 441 

Reading  Railroad 136 

Reaper,  First  McCormick 618 

Reaper,  Hussy 619 

Reaping  Machine,  First 617 

Remington,  E.,  &  Sons 614 

Remington  Typewriter 613 

Removal  of  the  Stomach 665 

Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute 704 

Rensselaer   Polytechnic    Institute,   En- 
trance Requirements 708 

Rensselaer  and  Saratoga  Railroad 133 

"  Residual  Magnetism  " 273 

Revolver,  First 412 

Revolving  Turret 441 

Rideau  Canal 234 

Rifle,  First  Breech- loading 405 

Rifle,  Krag- Jorgensen 409 


INDEX. 


745 


Rifle,  Sharps 408 

Rifle,  Spencer 408 

Rifle,  Springfield 409 

Rifles,  used  by  different  countries 411 

Rifling 398 

Roads,  Roman 117 

Rockefeller's,    John     D.,    Defense    of 

Standard  Oil  Company 522 

Rocker  (mining) 479 

"  Rocket" 126 

Rock  Oil  Company 511 

Roebling  Suspension  Bridge. .  .' 142 

Roentgen  X-Rays 585 

Roll  Paper 592 

Rolling  Platform 178 

Rolling  Mills,  First 322 

Roman  Roads 117,  1 18 

Rose  Polytechnic  School 704 

Rumsey's  First  Boat 206 

Russian  Dirigible  Balloon 194 

Russia,  Introduction  of  Steam  Naviga- 
tion   212 

Russian  Iron  Ore 350 

Russia,  Population  in  1855 151 

S 

Safety  Lamp,  Davy's 1 1  r ,  503 

Safety  Valve  and  Piston,  Origin  of 59 

Saleswomen 719 

Saratoga  and  Schenectady  Railroad ....    133 

Sault  Ste.  Marie 234,  237,  288,  304 

"  Savannah  " 212,  219 

Sawyer  Man  Incandescent  Lamp ......    282 

Schwergger's  Galvanic  Multiplier 260 

Scientific     Schools,     Requirements    for 

Entrance  to  ...    705,  706,  707,  708,  709 

Screw  Propeller,  Origin  of  the 203 

Sea  Island  Cotton 635 

Search  Light 280 

Search  Light,  use  to  fire  departments  . .    280 

Seaweed 680 

Semaphore 1 53,  527 

Sewing  Machines 32 

Sextuple  Printing  Press 60 1 

Shaft  Mining 482 

Sharps  Rifle 408 


Sheffield  Scientific  School 704 

Shell,  Armor- Piercing 393 

Ships,  Iron 213 

"  Shooting  "  an  Oil  Well 515 

Short  Lines  of  Railroad 130 

Shrapnel 394 

Siberia,  Wonders  of 148 

Sickles 5 1 ,  69 

Siemens'  Discovery  of  "  Residual  Mag- 
netism " 273 

Siemens  Process  of  Steel  Making 390 

Signal,  Block,  System 153,  154 

Signal,  Danger 160 

Signaling  through  Water 559 

Silicide  of  Carbon 286 

Silo  Plan  of  Grain  Elevators 632 

Silver  in  the  Arts 486 

Silver  Mining 485 

Silver  vs.  Gold 488 

Simplon  Pass,  Tunneling  under 163 

Single  Large  Cylinder  Press 599 

Siphon  Recorder 554 

"Sinus" 214,  215,216 

Skin  Grafting 659 

Sky  Scrapers 370 

Slag 68 1 

Smelting,  Process  of 324 

Smith  and  Wesson 401,  413 

Smokeless   Powder 404 ,  47 1 

Soemering 529 

Soliciting 726 

Some  Engineering  Feats 1 38 

Soulanges  Canal 234 

South    America,   Primitive    Methods  of 

Transportation  in 123 

Southern  Pacific  Railroad 135 

Spectroscope 647 

Spectroscope,  Grating 648 

-Speed,  An  Experiment  in 91 

Speed  of  Electric  Cars,  how  regulated..  276 

Spencer  Rifle 408 

Spinning  Frame 642 

Spinning  Jenny 642 

Spinning  Mule 543 

Spinning  Wheel 641 

Springfield  Arsenal 405 


746 


INDEX. 


Springfield  Rifle 409 

St.  Gothard  Tunnel 138,   161,165 

St.  Lawrence  Canal 235 

St.  Louis  School  of  Fine  Arts 704 

St.  Peter's 69,  276,  371 

Stagecoach,  Cost  of  Traveling  by 127 

Stage,  The 718 

Standard  Oil  Company 521 

Stanford  University,  Requirements  for 

Entrance 707 

Stassano  Process  of  Reducing  Iron  Ore.  288 

Static  Electricity 263 

Steam  and  Electrical  Appliances 29 

Steam  and  Machinery 28 

Steamboat,  Evolution  of 201 

Steamboat,  First 202 

steamboat,  Fitch 204 

Steamboat  Traffic  and  Fare 210 

Steam  Carriage,  First 70 

Steam  Condensation 50 

Steam  Engine,  Essential  Parts  of 45 

Steam  Engine,  Evolution  of  The 57 

Steam  Engine,  Practical  Efficiency 49 

Steam  Engine,  how  works 44 

Steam  Engines,  Efficiency  of  Different.  57 

Steam  Hammer 339 

Steam  Navigation,  Importance  of 213 

Steam  Plows 62 1 

Steam  Plow,  Cost  of  running 622 

Steam  Railway,  First 125 

Steam,  Superheated 56 

Steamships,  Table  of  Great 220 

Steam  Shovel 308 

Steel 329 

Steel  and  Iron,  Constitution  of 331 

Steel  Casts 332 

Steel  Castings 338,  339 

Steel  Coach  Springs,  First  Use  of 181 

Steel,  elastic  limit 341 

Steel,  Krupp 332 

Steel  Making,  crucible  process 331 

Steel  Making,  open-hearth  process  336,  337 

Steel  Making,  Siemens  process 390 

Steel  Rails 136 

Steel  Skeleton 375,  381 

Steel,  Society's  Debt  to 336 


Steel,  Tempering 329 

Steel,  Tensile  Strength 341 

Steel,  Testing 342 

Steel  Works,  Bethlehem 339 

Steer,  What  becomes  of  the 676 

Stenography 721 

Stereotype 601 

Stereotyping 608 

Stevens  Battery 440 

Stevens  Institute 704 

Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway..  74,  125 

Stomach,  Removal  of  the 665 

Stop  Cylinder  Press 599 

Storage  Battery 292,  294,  295,  298 

Storage  Battery, Faure's  Improvement  in  293 

Straightening  Crooked  Bones 661 

Strategic  Value  of  the  Baltic  and  North 

Sea  Canal 226 

Street  Railway  Travel 174 

"Striking  Oil" 515 

'•  Stourbridge  Lion  " 77,  130 

Sturgeon  Iron  Magnet 260 

Submarine  Boats 461 

Submarine  Cables 540,  547 

Subways 175 

Suez  Canal 227,  228,  237,  204 

Sun  Motor,  Ericsson's 1 1 1 ,  112 

Superheated  Steam 56 

Surgery  and  Consumption 662 

Surgery,  Bloodless 655 

Surgery,  Mechanical  Progress  in 654 

Surgery  of  the  Eye 665 

Surgery,  Painless 654 

Surgery's  Battle  with  Cancer 663 

Suspension  Bridges 353 

Switches,  how  operated 1 58 

Switch,  Interlocking 157 

T 

Taylor- White  Tool  Steel  343,  345 

Teaching 714 

Teaching,  Kindergarten 714 

Teaching,  Music 715 

Teaching,  Physical  Culture 7 '7 

Telautograph 55^ 

Telegraph,  Electric 527 


INDEX. 


747 


Telegraph,  Essential  Parts  of 529 

Telegraph,  First,  in  America 532 

Telegraphing  Moving  Trains 536 

Telegraph, .Tariff  on  First 532 

Telegraphy 722 

Telegraphy,  Wireless 536 

Telephone 555 

Telephone,  Long  Distance 557 

Telephone  Operators 722 

Telephony,  Wireless 558 

Telescope 649 

Telescope,  Greatest 651 

Telescope,  Lick 650 

Telescope,  Yerkes 651 

Tempering  Steel 329,    330,  331 

Temperature  of  Electric  Furnace,  how 

measured 286 

Tensile  Strength,  Steel 341 

"  Terrible" 490 

"  Terror,"  the  U.  S.  Monitor 102,  448 

Testing  Machines 343,  344 

Testing  Steel 342 

Textile  Machinery 25,  640 

Thermo-Batteries 267 

"  Thermo-electric  Couple  "  . .' 266 

Thrashing  Machines 623 

Three  Color  Printing 602 

Thurber's  Typewriter 612 

Tire,  Pneumatic 182 

Tires,  Automobile 187 

Toilet  Expert 726 

Toronto  Dental  College 713 

Toronto  School  of  Medicine 711 

Torpedo  Boats 458 

Torpedo  Boat  Destroyer 459 

Torpedo  Boat  Requirements 447 

Torpedo,  Howell 461 

Torpedoes,  Cost  of 461 

Tower  of  London 1 59 

Trading  promotes  Civilization 116 

Trajectory 397 

Tramways,  why  so  named 125 

Transatlantic  Cables 542 

Transatlantic  Lines  of  Steamships 213 

Transformer  (electricity) 277 

Travel,  Difficulties  of  Early 127 


PAGE 

Transportation 115 

Transportation  in  1809,  Cost  of 123 

Transportation,     Cost     of,     in     South 

America 124 

Transportation  creates  Trade 1 16 

Transportation,  Early 121 

Transportation,  Effect  of  Improved. ...  244 

Transportation,  Effect  on  Immigration.  247 

Transportation  feeds  England 119 

Transportation,  Growth  of  Rail 131 

Transportation  in  Time  of  George  III..  125 
Transportation,    primitive   methods    in 

South  America 123 

Transportation,  Quick  and  Cheap 1 19 

Transportation,   Rapid,  effect  on  tene- 
ments    247 

Transportation,  Relation  of,  to  War.  . .  245 

Trans-Siberian  Railroad [43,  148,  150 

Transportation  stimulates  Emigration.  .  248 

Transportation,  Water 201 

Tread  Power  Machines 625 

Treadwell,  Daniel 598 

Triple  Expansion  Engine 53 

Tubular  Bridge 362 

Tufts  College  Dental  School 713 

Tungsten 342 

Tunnel,  Arlberg 164 

Tunnel,  Cascade 164 

Tunnel,  Constructing  a 165 

Tunnel,  First  American  Railroad 164 

Tunnel,  Great  Western  Railroad 165 

Tunnel,  Longest  in  America 164 

Tunnel,  Mersey 165 

Tunnel,  Mont  Cenis 163 

Tunnel,  Sarnia 165 

Tunnel  Shield,  Greathead 165 

Tunnel  under  the  Thames 166 

Tunnels 161 

Tunneling  under  Simplon  Pass 163 

"  Turbina  " 221 

Turbine,  De  Laval 222 

Turbine,  Parsons  Steam   221 

Turret,  Revolving 441 

Turret  Ship,  English 443 

Twin  Screw  Propeller 439 

Typesetting  Machines 603,  693 


748 


INDEX. 


Typewriters 33,  610,  611 

Typewriting 721 

u 

Underground  Railroads  in  London. . . .  175 

Union  Pacific  Railroad 135 

United  Empire  Loyalists 249 

United  Pipe  Line  Association 519 

United  States  Production  of  Iron 350 

United  States  Postal  Service 568 

Universal  Interoceanic  Canal  Co 229 

University  of  Illinois 719 

University  of  Illinois,  Entrance  Require- 
ments    707 

University   of    Pennsylvania,   Entrance 

Requirements 708 

University  of  the  State  of  New  York.  .  719 

Upland  Cotton 635 

Utilization  of  Waste  Products 675 

V 

Vaccination 667 

Valves,  Vauclain  System  of 84 

Valve,  Working  of  a  Slide 44 

Vauclain  System  of  Valves 84 

"  Velocipede  " 182 

Vessels,  Ore. ." 309 

Vesuvius 101 

Viaduct,  Kinzua 365 

Viaduct,  Pecos 366 

Victoria  Bridge 362 

Victoria,  Queen 402,  408,  53 1 ,  543 

"Victory" 415,  453 

"  Viper  " 222,  223,  224 

Vocal  Memnon 58 

Volta's  Electric  Battery 256 

"Volt"  defined 276 

W 

"  Warrior  " 443 

War  Ship,  Evolution  of  the 434 

War  Steamer,  First 437 

Washington's    Interest   in  Transporta- 
tion Improvement 122 

"  Washington  "  Printing  Press 597 

Water,  Decomposed 257 

Water  Gas 506 


Water  Route,  Chicago  to  New  Orleans, 

Probable  ................  ,  .......  237 

Water  Transportation  ................    201 

Watervliet  Arsenal  ..................   422 

Watt,  James.  .51,  59,  63,  64,  65,  66,  67,  69, 

70,  71,  73,  99,  184,352 

"  Watt,"  Origin  of  Term  ............    277 

Wealth,  Division  of  ..................   699 

"  Weehawken  "  .....................   389 

Welding,  Electric  ....................    284 

Weling  Breech  Block  ................   421 

Welland  Canal,  Heavy  Tonnage  of.  ...    235 

Wells  Light  .........................    521 

Westinghouse  Air  Brakes....    83,  102,   156 

Wheat  .............................   63  1 

Wheat  Crop  of  the  United  States  in  1895.  237 
Wheat  Crop  of  the  World  ............    635 

Wheat,  Warehouse  System  of  Handling.  631 
Wheeled  Vehicles,  Progress  in  ........    180 

Whitehead  Torpedo.  ........    101,  459,  465 

White  Pass  and  Yukon  River  Railroad.    249 
White  Star  Line  .....................  220 

Whitney,  Eli  ..........    174,  404,  636,  683 

Whitworth  Fluid  Compression  ........    339 

Wind  Pressure  on  Buildings  ..........    364 

Wire  Glass  ........................   384 

Wireless  Telegraphy  ............    252,   536 

Wireless  Telephony  ..................    558 

Wollaston,  Dr  ..................    290,  646 

Woman's  Medical  College,  Philadelphia.  711 
Women,  Modern  Occupations  for  .....    710 

Wood  Fiber  ........................    593 

Wood  Pulp  .........................    593 

World  Production  of  Coal    ...........    504 

World  Production  of  Iron  and  Steel.  .  .   352 
World  Wheat  Crop  for   1899  ..........   635 

Wrought  Iron  .......................  328 


X 


X-Ray  Experiments 


Yerkes  Telescope  ........  ,  .  .........   651 

"York"  ...........................     79 

Z 

Zeppelin's  Experiments  with  Air  Ships.    194 
Zoetrope  ...........................    5^4 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  DIAGRAMS. 


Artilleryman 389 

Atlantic  Type  of  Locomotive 8 1 

Automobile .    1 90 

Bessemer,  Sir  Henry 333 

Best's  Traction  Engine 622 

Breech  Block 421 

Bridge 301 

Bridge,  Forth ' 366 

Bridge,  Natural 355 

Cable  Map  of  the  World 540 

Camera  for  Stereoscopic  Work 583 

Cannon  of  Gordon's  Battery 415 

Centrifugal  Milk  Skimmer 629 

City  of  Oil  Tanks 510 

"  Clermont's  "   First  Voyage 209 

Closed  Circuit  System  of  Telegraph  .  .  .    533 

Colt  Machine  Gun 433 

Colt's  First  Revolver 4^2 

Cotton  Gin,  Modern . .    639 

Cugnot's  Carriage 70 

Daguerre 577 

Diagram  of  Forgings 340 

Draper,  Dorothy 578 

Dutton  Lock,  Air  Conduit  and  Valve  .  .    241 

Dutton  Pneumatic  Lock 240 

Economy  of  Storage  Battery 296 

Electric  Automobile 190 

Electric  Current  Diagram 295,  297 

Electric  Storage  Battery 294 

Empire  Typesetter 608 

Ericsson's  Monitor 446 

Fahrenheit  Scale 107 

Field,  Cyrus  W 542 

First  Horseless  Carriage 184 

First  Railroad  Advertisement  in  Amer- 
ica.     170 

First  Sun  Picture 578 

Flying  Machine,  Maxim's 196 

Flying  Machine,  Zeppelin's 195 

Forth  Bridge 366 

Fulton,  Robert .206" 


Garabit  Viaduct 366 

Gas  Engine  Diagram 94 

Gold  Mining 477 

Gold  Product 483 

Green's  Fuel  Economizer 54 

Green's  Fuel   Economizer   in    Connec- 
tion with  Furnace 55 

Harvesting,  Old  and  New 25 

Heaviest  Locomotive  in  the  World  ....      87 

Henry's  Telegraph 527 

Hero's  Engine 58 

Highest  Chimney  in  the  World 490 

Hoe  Printing  Press 600 

"  Holland  " 464 

Horseshoe  Magnet  and  Iron  Filings  .  . .    269 

Hotel  in  New  Mining  Camp 485 

Krag-Jorgensen    Rifle    and    Old    Flint 

Lock 410 

Krupp,  Alfred  Frederick 332 

Launch  of  the  "  Oceanic  " 220 

Laying  the  Atlantic  Cable 546 

Linotype ...   604 

Locomobile , 188 

Locomotive,  Atlantic  Type  of 81 

Locomotive,  Heaviest,  in  the  World.  . .     87 

Maxim's  Flying  Machine 196 

McCormick's  First  Harvester 618 

Morse's  First  Telegraph  Instrument.  . .    533 
Mortar  Battery  in  New  York  Harbor..   426 

Natural  Bridge 355 

Natural  Gas 508 

Niagara  Steel  Arch 361 

Nickel  Steel  Ingot 388 

"  Oceanic  " 219 

"  Oceanic  "  compared  with    Broadway 

Buildings 221 

Oil  Well  Flowing 516 

Oil  Well  Tools 513,  514 

Old  Fashioned  Home 668 

1 '  Old  Ironsides  " 80 

On  the  Dump 488 


750 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

On  the  Tramway 495 

Piston  and  Valve  Diagrams 47 

Pneumatic   Hammer 99 

Pneumatic  Tools,   Submarine  Use  of. .  101 

Principle  of  the  Dynamo 271 

Principle  of  the  Motor 271 

Prospector 484 

Remington  Typewriter 613 

"  Rocket" 76 

Roentgen,  Prof..  W.  C 585 

Shell,  Forged  Steel 392 

Shell,  Forged  Steel  Armor- Piercing. .  . .  393 

Steam  Engine,  Essential  Parts  of  a. ...  45 
Steam  Engine,  Working  Parts  of  a. .  .46,  47 

Stephenson,  George 73 

String  of  Oil  Well  Tools 513 

"  Stourbridge  I  Jon  " 78 

Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway 75 


Submarine  Cable,  Section  of 547 

Submarine  Use  of  Pneumatic  Tools  . .  .  101 

Telephone  Receiver 555 

Telephone  Switchboard 556 

"  Teutonic  "  in  dry  dock 222 

Time-Table  of  the  Philadelphia  Railroad 

in  1832 170 

Trevithick  Locomotive 72 

Underwood  Typewriter 614 

Vauclain  System  of  Valves 84 

Viaduct,  Garabit 366 

Watt,  James 64 

Whitney,  Eli ' 637 

Whitney's  First  Cotton  Gin 638 

Windmill 40 

Wollaston's  Experiment 647 

Wooden  Frame  Book  Press 596 

Zeppelin's  Flying  Machine 195 


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